Heroes of Tomorrow, Heroes of Today (STONY-RUCAS AU)
by yuniesan
Summary: Riley is the daughter of Tony Stark, but no one knows who she is. Her life has been a lie for her own protection, so when she strikes a deal with her father in six months the world would know. How hard can that be? Well when you're going to a school where your teachers are spies what could go wrong? Everything
1. Chapter 1 - Memories

_**A/N:**_ So for those of you who've read my Rucas Week Day 8 Story, this is the first chapter with Riley and Lucas as two of the four main characters. The story is also pre-slash with a relationship between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers

 _ **A/N #2:**_ Because the MCU timeline shifted with Spiderman Homecoming, Infinity war would have happened while Riley was fifteen or sixteen. Or at least that's my theory, seriously the timelines are more confusing now.

 _ **A/N #3:**_ This is the first time I'm writing Steve/Tony so please be kind.

* * *

 **Chapter One – Memories**

For as long as Riley could remember, her life has been a lie. Her parents are stand-ins; her siblings don't really know her, in reality they're not her siblings to begin with. To the world her name is Riley Matthews, average everyday normal sixteen-year-old girl, well as average as you can get when you're carrying around a secret bigger than any normal person. Her life was an elaborate lie. In reality her name is Riley Maria Stark, heir to the Stark Industries fortune, and hidden from the rest of the world. Only a handful of people, and one android knew she existed, they were sworn to secrecy, and not even her father's superhero co-workers knew of her existence. The only reason Vision knew about her was because he was once a part of JARVIS, and the memories that were a part of the AI transferred over to the android.

She was hidden from the press, but that didn't stop her from reacting to what was happening in her own world, her father swore that he would do anything to protect her, including building her a suit that she wasn't allowed to use unless it was an emergency. Her life was filled with moments where she would disappear from her New York home just to be with her father, and those memories sometimes haunted her in the same ways that they haunted her father. Her mother is his one-time love interest, and one-time assistant the now CEO of Stark Industries, Virginia "Pepper" Potts. When it was suggested to him that he should have an heir her mother stepped in and became a surrogate. This was before their relationship, before Afghanistan, before New York, when her father's life was simple in the genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist kind of way.

Riley always knew that her father was different, and at first he spent as much time as he could with her before he fell into old habits. He always made sure that she could talk to him, that she knew he was her father, but she had also known that he was afraid of losing her so she played along and joined the Matthews family when she was five. She spent her weekends with her father, hiding in the lab, fixing cars, doing things that no normal child should be doing but they did it anyway. On the nights he had to be at a party or the holiday's he couldn't spend with Riley she spent them with her Uncle Rhodey, or her mother. The only person she hated spending any time with was her Uncle Obie, she remembered whenever he came over and she was there the first thing she would do was hide somewhere he wouldn't see her.

When Afghanistan happened, Riley had been in New York with the Matthews, they hadn't told her a thing. They tried to shield her from the news as much as possible because she was so young, but she saw the newspaper headline on the way to school and started calling her father's phone constantly. She left him messages, she asked JARVIS to playback home videos that they had done together, stupid jokes they had with one another. She remembered crying constantly for her father to the point that the Matthews kept her at home, with the help of her mother they had said that Riley was very sick and couldn't go to school because they feared that if the other kids had caught something and gave it to her that it would compromise her immune system. It was a well fabricated lie, just like her life with the Matthews family. She was seven at the time, but she knew that if her father died the whole world would know who she was and she wasn't ready to give up the special days they shared.

Her Uncle Obie didn't say anything to the world, even though her father's will had a stipulation that Riley was the sole heir to Stark Industries. He kept it quiet, and her guardian would be her mother, or her Uncle Rhodey, because they were her family. So when he came back Riley made sure that she would be able to stay with him for a while. The school thought that she had only gone away to a specialized hospital, but she was actually at the mansion in Malibu. When she first saw the circle of light on her father's chest it scared her, but he just smiled like nothing was wrong.

"But daddy, what is it?" she had asked him.

"It's an electromagnet, it's keeping me alive so that I can be with you my little angel," he said holding her close.

"Don't ever go away again daddy."

"I won't sweetheart… I won't."

She watched as he built the mark II of the suit, laughing whenever he got sprayed by DUM-E, because it was funny. She watched every time he made a new discovery, when he flew for the first time. After he had perfected the suit he held her, while she was wrapped in a blanket, and flew high enough that she could see the city lights. But after a party one night, he was angry at someone, and the suit had officially become Iron Man after he went overseas. Her father had become a hero in her eyes after she saw that he had saved a village full of people. That happiness was short lived, one night when her Uncle Obie came over, and she hid in the closet, and watched as the man who her father had once considered family try to kill him. Riley sat there scared out of her mind trying not to make a sound as the little circle of life that kept her father alive was ripped from his chest. When she was certain that he had left, she rushed to her father and asked him what to do but he didn't answer right away. She got him water, and a blanket before trying to call her mother, but the lines were down, and JARVIS wasn't working. She felt so helpless, he finally asked for help and she slowly helped him down the stairs to his lab. DUM-E handed them the old reactor and she waited for the color to come back to his face. Uncle Rhodey had shown up soon afterwards and helped her father stand, and suit up as Riley watched.

"Take care of my girl Rhodey," her father had said before leaving her to fight the man he had once considered family.

That night she spent with her Uncle and his son Isaiah, who she's called Zay since they met at her third birthday. He was the only other person who knew who she was and he was sworn to secrecy because his father was as much of a private person as hers was. Both of Zay's parents, although not together, were good people and in the armed services, so they knew that keeping who Riley was a secret was as much of a priority. Especially with what was happening across town.

She almost lost both of her parents that night, all because her Obadiah Stane's want for power. Her father told the world that he was Iron Man the next day, and she was proud of him, but now she was also scared for him. So he made Riley a promise that even though the world knew that he was Iron Man, no one would know about the reactor in his chest.

When she was nine, she was the happiest she had ever been in her entire life, her father had brought the Stark Expo to New York, and he would be spending as much time there as possible because he had plans to build a tower in the middle of Manhattan. He wanted to be closer to her, but soon after the start of the Expo, he left. Riley knew something was wrong because soon after her mother was named CEO of Stark Industries, and her father was off racing formula one cars in Monaco. She hacked into the cameras in their Malibu home only to have a short glimpse of something around her father's chest before JARVIS kicked her off the servers. He later told her that he was slowly being poisoned by the reactor, but he fixed it, he swore he would never leave her.

That year her parents started dating, and as weird as it was for them to all of a sudden realize their feelings for one another, and to Riley it was weird, she was happy for them. For the first time in her life she had both of her parents in the same place at the same time. Her father began construction on the Stark Tower, and her mother was running the company. Riley spent her weekends with them both at the Stark mansion in New York, away from the eyes of the workers at the tower. Riley was spending less time with the Matthews and more time with her own parents and so their little family was born. Riley transferred to a private school closer to her home, and her Uncle Rhodey moved nearby with Zay so that the two could go to school together and have a normal life. She was still a Matthews to the world, but at home she was a Stark and it was perfect.

Two years later, Captain America was found, her father was excited at seeing his old hero come back to life, and although his first reaction was to be snarky she knew that he would do anything for the man out of time. The Avengers were formed soon after, and although they didn't know about her, she knew everything about them. She gained her Uncle Nick, and lost her Uncle Phil, but her life was still whole in several ways. She watched as her father's tower was destroyed, and the Chitari invaded, she was safe they couldn't get to her. But as she watched her father fly a missile into the sky, the same dread that she got twice before came back. Would he ever come back home?

He did but he was a changed man once again, now he couldn't sleep as well as he had before. She had nightmares as well thinking of days were he would go missing and never come back, that someone would blow him up with that missile that was headed towards the city. So he rebuilt the tower in the sky, he said it was for the Avengers now, but he moved back and forth between New York and Malibu. She saw him less and less the busier he got, but she knew he was trying to hide his weaknesses from her. He wanted her to think that her father was stronger than he was, because he feared what he had seen.

Just before Christmas, after her twelfth birthday, the headlines were once again riddled with word of his death, after her Uncle Happy had been injured in a bombing. She was shocked, and her mother called her constantly, but then she went missing as well and all of a sudden Riley feared the worse, that she would lose both of her parents and not be able to say goodbye to them. Of course her father didn't die and her mother was saved, but their relationship suffered from what had happened. He had destroyed his suits and tried to become who he though her mother wanted, but Riley learned a long time ago that her father was Iron Man as much as he was Tony Stark. Her mother hadn't understood that lesson at all, right after he fixed her problem with the extremis, but before he could take out the arc reactor from his chest, the two of them broke it off.

As the helicarriers fell into the Potomac, Riley began living with her father full-time, she worried about him more than her mother. The Matthews didn't mind as long as she kept going to school and didn't get into any trouble. Sometimes Riley realized that they forgot who her father was, and sometimes trouble was a part of the equation. At first it was only the little things, but Riley would always challenge herself and the school was paid well for anything she blew up. Her father laughed at her constantly but would always help her with her projects, so while they lived in the New York house he had built her a lab next to his own. Riley's records were never on the SHIELD databases, but her name was one of those that Hydra targeted. She found this out later, after she heard from JARVIS about it she had called her father while he was at the tower. He confirmed it but was glad that nothing had happened.

The Avengers were back together soon afterwards, and her father was going on missions to take out Hydra bases around the world. He would call her sometimes while on a mission just to check up on her, and JARVIS would constantly send her updates to her Stark Phone. When she was alone in the mansion one night she asked JARVIS when her father would be back, they had just come back from the final mission so he would be spending more time with her. But when JARVIS didn't answer Riley felt like something had gone wrong and called her father immediately. He didn't answer, which was strange because he always had his phone nearby in case she called. When he had called her the next morning to explain what happened, he asked her to stay in her lab and lock it down in case Ultron came after her. JARVIS for the longest time had been her friend and she mourned him, but also got to work on creating another A.I. most of the ones her father had as back-ups were his own, except for one, FRIDAY was Riley's A.I. and when he told her he was going to use her as his own she was proud. It was their version of a perfect grade on the refrigerator, and it made her ecstatic. He kept her updated, until he went off the grid after the events in Sokovia.

When everything was fixed and Ultron was gone, Riley had gained another family member, Vision the android, she didn't know how she felt about him. The only reason he knew who she was, was because he had JARVIS inside of him and the memories that had come from the A.I. Her father had given the Avengers the upstate facility and he came home, retired for the first time. For the first time in her life she had a full time parent, her father was always around, telling her stories of Captain America, or the other Avengers, but mostly he spoke of the Captain. Riley knew that he was very fond of the man, and every so often he would go to the New Avengers facility just to talk to him or help with the gear upgrades for the team. Riley commuted from school to their house, just like her father did for his work with Stark Industries and the Avengers. They had dinner every night, and watched movies like a normal family.

A year later the Accords were being discussed, and her father was working on getting the Avengers to sign, but everything changed in an instant, when former Sergeant James Buchannan Barnes came into the picture. He had always been there in the background, but her father never mentioned him. The news took care of that, and the fight between the Avengers was broadcasted to the world. She wondered if the Captain was right about what he was doing, because she knew her father harbored some kind of feeling for him. After the airport battle Zay came to stay with her, as they tried to figure out how to get to his father who had been injured in the fight. Riley also learned that one of the allies her father had was a teenage boy named Peter, she only found out because she checked the files FRIDAY had from the fight to find out more on her Uncle Rhodey. Her father wouldn't let her fight but had been mentoring Peter which made her sad.

She called him, asking him to come home and forget about the Avengers, because she didn't want him to get hurt, but instead he went to help the Captain. When she got a call from her mother telling her that her father had been injured Riley cried, she didn't want anything to happen to him, she wanted to help him. He came back a week later, and for the first time he looked broken to her. He had fought his friends, and although he was within the boundaries of the law, he had lost his family because of it. That first night he sat in the living room staring out at the darkness, she walked in and sat next to him as she wrapped her arms around his and held him close. He was bruised, and broken, but she knew that he would still try to save the world. The guilt would consume him if he didn't. Riley was angry at the Avengers, even though they didn't know she existed she knew everything that had happened. They had broken the man who had been there for them, had given them a home, he had given them everything because he had nothing outside of his daughter. It hurt her to see him like this, but she knew that he would rebuild it all.

The nightmares returned in full force after that, she would crawl into his bed like she did when she was a little girl seeking his comfort from a bad dream. She would rub his back and tell him stories about school, she would wait until he calmed down in his sleep and stayed with him until morning. Her mother would come over and try to get him to work, they still loved each other, they were family, but their relationship was platonic.

Riley met Peter soon afterwards, and a new friendship was born. Peter thought that Riley was just someone who interned for her father, no one was allowed to know the truth about her. They didn't have as many allies as they had before and the truth would only make her a bigger target. So she made friends with Peter, they worked together on a number of things, she made friends with his friends, and Peter made friends with Zay. They had a little group, and would sometimes hang out at the tower while her father worked, watching movies, or just playing around. She knew Peter was Spiderman, but she never told him that she knew, and in the end he became her brother in a way. Her father was rebuilding his family with new people, and giving her these friends as well. Riley split her time with helping her father, and her Uncle Rhodey. Vision went off on quest looking to understand the world more, and Peter came over every so often to have a movie night. Her father sold the tower and they stayed in the New York mansion close to the New Avenger's Facility.

When she was sixteen, Thanos came, and the wayward Avengers were brought back together, they fought and almost died, while Riley stayed put in her lab just like every other fight. At the time she started building her first suit based on her father's original schematics, she had FRIDAY put it in a secure folder, away from even her father. Because a girl has to have her secrets.

* * *

To say that Tony Stark was an overprotective father, was an understatement. If her was overprotective it was only towards the identity of his little girl. When it was suggested that he have an heir in case of his demise he thought they were crazy. The suggestion had come from one of his father's advisors after the man's death. Tony was alone at the age of twenty and he didn't think to listen to anyone. Pepper brought it up again years later after a memo had surfaced, and she offered to be the surrogate mother if that's what he needed. After a lot of debates, he had agreed to have a child, when his daughter was born he had fallen head over heels in love with the little bundle of joy. He wanted to be there for her, so while the world saw him as a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, they didn't know that he was also a father of one little bouncing baby girl.

They created an identity for Riley outside of the Stark name, only a handful of people knew that she had even existed, and that Pepper was her mother. Pepper was there as much as possible, and Riley called her mom, but the little brunette was attached to her father more than anyone. When she was with him, he didn't drink, he taught her how to build things, how to fix a car, how to be a Stark without the Daddy issues. He saw a part of himself that no one else got to see, the only other person her age who knew her true identity was Rhodey's son, Isaiah, who had been born the year before Riley. The two of them grew up together, and like him and Rhodey, they were the closest of friends.

The playboy life slowly started to fade into the background, every once and a while when Riley wasn't around he had a one night stand but outside of that he was the best he could be. Then Afghanistan happened, and the whole time he was in that cave he feared for his little girl, she was still so young and he didn't want to leave her behind. Iron Man Mark I was born in that cave, mostly because he wanted to go back to his little girl. His life was changed in that cave, and he wanted to do right by her beyond what he already did. No more weapons for Stark Industries, only a good legacy for Riley's future.

The years went by, and he hid as much as he could from her, the palladium poisoning, the fact that he had been dying, the fact that he had almost died trying to save the world. His work with the Avengers, and even his crush on the good Captain. His relationship with Pepper was great and it gave him the chance to give his little girl a family, a real family, but like everything else it fell apart. Ultron happened and the guilt over his legacy came back in full force, not just for what he was leaving behind for his little girl, but what it had caused. So he retired and worked full-time for Stark Industries while taking care of Riley. She lived with him full-time, while keeping her cover, but he was grateful to have her around.

When the Civil War had happened his heart broke into a million pieces, he was lucky that the arc reactor had held even after Captain America had pierced his armor. This is what happens when he tried to do something good, it blew up in his face. The people he had thought of as family left him as if he were something they could throw aside when it was fit to do so. He had so many trust issues from his parents, from Obie, and now from the people he thought he could trust the most. He didn't hate James Barnes, but his rage came out in full force, the real problem was the lies from the one person he loved more than his own kid. Someone who he had pined for, someone who he had looked up to, someone who yelled at him for keeping a secret but in the end kept the biggest secret of them all.

When he had gotten home after all of that Riley was there to make sure he didn't go down the same road he had after his parents' deaths. She kept him going every single day, and although he knew that she wanted to help and become the next phase of the Avengers, he was afraid of giving that to her. So he helped Peter, and they fought over that, but he knew that she would understand how much he didn't want to lose another member of his family. Riley befriended Peter, and brought him into her small circle and Peter brought his friend Ned into hers. Peter didn't know she was a Stark, it was the one secret that Riley had kept from him.

Thanos happened soon after that, and Tony got a whole group of new friends, and his old family as well, but their relationship was strained and Tony didn't know how to talk to them. Bruce came back from where ever he had been, and they stayed close to one another, Rhodey got better, and it made everything bearable. He saw how much the split had affected the Avengers, how everything had affected his old family. So when everything was said and done, Tony helped recreate SHIELD and he became the director, but he didn't want anyone to know so Fury came back as the Shadow Director, everyone thought Fury was at the helm once again but Tony was the one who called all of the shots. Fury knew about Riley, he had known since the beginning of his Iron Man days, because when he had first met Fury, Riley had also met him. Like Barton's family, Riley was kept out of all of SHIELD's files, but it still didn't keep her off of Hydra's radar. Luckily she was safe, and now he was going to keep it that way.

Fury set up the Avengers Academy, for future heroes, those who SHIELD thought were worth the time to look at and train from an early age. He ran the school while Tony ran SHIELD. The system worked, but his relationship with the Avengers was still hanging on a wire, and he didn't know how to fix it at all.

That's how he found himself with Fury standing in his house, just outside of his home office where he worked on everything related to SHIELD, or Stark Industries. When Nick Fury walked into a room he commanded everyone's attention. That wasn't the same in the Stalk household. Most of the time Tony couldn't be bothered. So of course when Fury walked into the Stark mansion and strode into Tony's office, he rolled his eyes.

"What do you want Fury?" Tony said as he looked through the papers he was signing. The paperwork was over the new helicarrier designs and how they would be different from the ones that had been blown up over the Potomac so many years before.

Tony made sure that his entire life ran smoothly, he promised Pepper but he also promised himself to be there for his daughter. There was no time to be a hero lately, he was too busy, and while he still worked on small projects for Fury under the guise that he was the Director, he didn't fight as much anymore. He didn't want to be reminded about what had happened so long ago, so he stayed away as much as he could.

"Your kid is a handful," Nick said as he sat down. "I know the world doesn't know that she's yours Stark but I'm pretty sure she's turning heads out there. Considering she blew up the science lab."

Tony couldn't help but wonder what Fury was up to or his motives for being there were but his daughter had something to do with it.

"Riley," he yelled out wondering why he hadn't just asked Friday to get Riley for him. He was a dad in that way, calling out to her, being home for dinner, small things he had never thought about before he had a kid.

Not too long afterwards the brunette ran down and slid into the room. She smiled when she saw Fury and gave the man a quick hug before walking over to Tony and sitting down next to him.

"What's up?" she said as she looked at her father, "Hey Uncle Nick?" she smiled. Fury was the only person outside of the Matthews Family who knew that Riley was his daughter. She had an alternative life, so that the press wouldn't know, but she was a Stark through and through.

"You blew up the science lab?" Tony asked getting a knowing smile from his daughter.

"Well," she said looking down at her hands. "I was attempting to create this compound for you to use to make that line of drug detectors you know the ones we talked about, that way someone knew if they were getting drugged and I think the chemical compound I used well... it sorta exploded."

Tony couldn't help but laugh as Riley looked at him with a I'm not really guilty face, he knew she was always trying something new but when it came to school he always told her to hold back.

"I guess you forgot the rules of the house," Tony said to her trying to be serious.

"No but I was so close to a breakthrough that I sort of let it get away from me, because it's for the greater good."

Tony didn't know what to do, she was so much like him with the sassiness of her mother, but he also knew that Fury came over for a reason so he sent Riley away before turning back to the man in front of him.

"Why does her little experiment scare you so much Nick?" he asked honestly curious about why the man had shown up just because she had blown the science lab.

Fury smiled at him, like all the other times before Tony knew this had something to do with the Avengers. "Well I just wanted to say that maybe she should come to the Avenger's School we've set up. And before you argue against it, I know that she already knows about Iron Man and the Avengers, you just don't want her exposed to all of that because then she would have to deal with the fact that she's Tony Stark's daughter."

"That's not why… well mostly," he said thinking back to the last time he had actually interacted with his one-time friends. I hadn't ended so well, and even though they had worked together to defeat that other worldly power hungry jack-ass Thanos, he wanted something better for his daughter.

"Tony no one knows who she is, for the most part she could just be an asset to us, and you can teach there if it would make you feel better. They don't have to know that you're the director, or you could put together the tech lab, since it's on the same land as the Avenger's facility."

He sighed thinking that he needed a break from Stark Industries from being the Director of SHIELD without anyone knowing it was him, he missed the overall aspect of starting something new. He missed his one-time friends.

"I'll talk to her about it," he said which earned him a nod from Fury before the man walked out of the house. "Maybe it will be different now, maybe I can deal with seeing them all there again."

* * *

Riley had FRIDAY playing her workshop playlist while working on a new project, she didn't want to deal with chemicals for a while since she nearly blew off her eyebrows when the science lab exploded. She knew that the Matthews would be called in the next day to deal with it, and her father was probably trying to keep her from being kicked out of another school just because she was trying to make it easier for girls to be able to detect date rape drugs.

"Riley," she heard her father call out over the music, which only caused her to drop the soldering iron and jump away before it landed on her jeans.

"Damn it dad," she said as she picked it up and laid it on her work table.

"What have I told you about playing music in the workshop?"

"That it should be louder, and probably AC/DC."

"That's my girl," he said kissing her on the head.

Riley laughed, she knew him too well. "So what did Uncle Nick want today?"

"For you to go to the Avenger's School," he said.

She couldn't believe it, she knew about her father's other life long before she was born, now at sixteen someone wanted to bring her into that world. But she also remembered the ramifications of his life in that world. Her mother died because of the constant danger, and she knew that something had happened between him and Captain America, and whatever that was it had caused a rift so bad the two haven't spoken to one another and the small conversations they did have were strained and short.

"I don't know," she said wondering if it was a good idea especially since no one knew who she was. "Wouldn't it bring problems to what we are?"

"Riley regardless of anything you are the heir of the Stark fortune, but you are also one smart ass kid, and even though I wanted you to be more than I was, I also want you to reach your full potential. Peter's going to study there so it should be alright for the both of you to hang out more, and if I ask Rhodey, Zay would go to so you would have friends there."

"Okay, and it's closer than the school I was going to so I wouldn't need to take a nearly two-hour train ride to get there," she said smiling. "More family dinners, and more time for us to do stuff together."

"Well," her father hesitated. "He asked me to come and teach at the school as well."

"So we can be home at the same time for once?"

"Yes we will be," he smiled at her. She was something else, and he was proud of her. "Your mom can handle Stark Industries better than I can, and I can do my Director duties while I'm there."

"So does that mean that you're going to come out as the Director of SHIELD?" she asked knowing how he has kept it from everyone.

"I guess it's time to come out, considering I approve all of their missions, are you alright with that?"

"I will be, but under one condition."

"What's that baby girl?"

"I want to tell everyone that I'm a Stark," she's wanted to for a while now, the reason being her armor, but also she wants to be there for him when everyone found out the truth.

"How about I make you a deal," he said looking at her. "Give me six months, you go to school there, I work out the kinks of everyone knowing the truth about me being the Director, and we'll work with your mother on you coming out to the world as a Stark."

"You have yourself a deal," she said jumping into his arms and hugging him as hard as possible.

* * *

If there is something that Steve Rogers regrets in his life, it would be what happened during the Accords. Everything afterwards went to hell all because he wanted to save his best friend, someone from his time, someone who knew Steve before the war, before the serum, before everything. Except that choice cost him the friendship he had with Tony, he made sure that Steve could survive the future he had been dropped into, he gave him his trust and a home. In one moment of weakness, because he was afraid of the truth, he lost everything. His friends followed him, but in doing so they had left Tony behind, and the guilt of splitting their family ate him from the inside. Natasha helped him, and he was grateful, but because of his decisions she was being hunted as well, Clint couldn't see his family, Sam couldn't go home, Wanda lost Vision, and Scott who he barely knew lost his chance to be a good father to his daughter.

Regret was written all over his face, and it haunted him in his dreams. The sight of Tony under him as he drove the shield into the reactor, the scared look in his friend's eyes, the pain. It all haunted him. It was his burden no one else's and even though T'Challa had given them a sanctuary, it didn't feel like home. He was once again misplaced in his life, so he worked for the King, he adopted a new name, and he refused to think of home. He felt like he was wandering through life, Clint made comments about hating Tony, Natasha kicked him every time, Scott disappeared, Sam helped him get through each mission, and Bucky was a frozen man once again. He visited his friend, but he couldn't do anything for him. He was helpless without Tony, but he pushed the thoughts aside and kept moving forward. Wanda had disappeared at some point refusing to do anything until she got a handle on who she was. He felt guilty for making her leave New York.

Wanda had told him something before she had disappeared, something no one had known, and that was what she had shown Tony when they had first met. She told him that she was sorry for causing the rift that had torn apart the Avengers in the first place. She told him that if it hadn't been for her, then her brother wouldn't have died, that Tony would never have created Ultron, and maybe the Accords would have never torn apart their family.

"What did you show him Wanda?" he had asked that day.

"I showed him his greatest fear, I showed him a war where his friends, his family had died all around him, where you were the last one still alive. I made him feel guilt for not doing more, I gave him the fear that if he didn't save you he would lose you," she said hugging herself.

"It didn't make a difference, in the end we were still torn apart."

"This can be fixed one day Steve, you can tell him your feelings, and everything will be better, you just need to be honest with yourself, and with him.'

Everything inside of him was filled with nothing but guilt.

Wanda wasn't the only one who cornered him, after a particularly hard mission while they were on their way back to their hideout, Natasha cornered him. He hadn't slept in nearly a week, and always told her that it was because of the mission. She had pushed him into a corner and made him sit down.

"If you can't sleep you have to talk about it so pick your poison," she said looking at him as her now blonde hair was tied into a ponytail.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said trying to get up again but she took out her cuffs and tied him to the wall.

"Well then you're staying put and you're going to listen to me Rogers," she said her voice fierce with determination. "We all made mistakes, I made several, we all turned our backs on Tony and I don't know if he'll ever forgive us for that, but you need to admit you were as wrong as he was in all of this, maybe even take the most of the blame for how it all turned out. If we had told him the truth earlier, if we had sat down and talked, if we had done a million things differently maybe we would have all been together when it came to the Accords. But sitting around feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to change a damn thing."

She walked away soon after, leaving him tied to the wall and he didn't think to free himself, instead he sat there and thought about a million different things. They were mostly stupid little things that had once been normal, like movie nights and dinners. How Tony would always sit next to him and explain things he didn't understand, or talk about a new idea he had. He thought about living in the tower and how they would watch the sun rise, Tony would be headed off to bed, while Steve was going out for a run. He turned his body to face the wall to hide the fact that he had been crying, he missed his friend.

When the news hit that Tony had sold off the tower it felt like a kick to his gut, it was as if a chapter of his life had been closed and he hadn't been able to say goodbye to it. The tower had been there for so much of his new life, and it was a beacon to the Avengers whenever they were on their way home. His home was gone.

Thanos came and destroyed everything, and the wayward Avengers were back together, but the rift was there, and he knew that there was nothing short of death that would get them to admit that they all did something wrong. It was close very close, but he couldn't bring himself to admit his wrongs, and when he almost died on that battlefield, he regretted everything that had happened. Bucky came back during this time he was still jittery after getting out of cryo but he worked with everyone and they made sure to survive the battle and live for another day. After that everyone moved to New York, they were Avengers once again. But Tony stayed away, and the guilt kept eating away in his heart.

SHIELD was reestablished, Fury was back at the helm, everyone was vetted, and the Avenger's school was created so that they could get the best and brightest no matter what age, and train them to change the face of SHIELD. He worked himself to the bone, he watched as Bucky became more human as his friend started flirting with agents and acted like he normally had in a time long before. Natasha helped him, and soon they started a relationship that Steve didn't want to understand.

Sharon was there, but whatever they had didn't last, it would never last, she was just a connection to a life he had once had, and the loss of Peggy had only solidified that. They stayed friends, it was the only way they could be because they couldn't be anything more than that. Sam had made fun of him for the kiss they had share, it was awkward in every way possible and he knew it. In the end he had been trying to hold onto a past they should just remain in the past, but he's still living in the mistakes of those days on the run, those days just trying to figure out how to keep his best friend alive.

Every day since he came back to the states, since after the big battle over the infinity stones, he looked out for Tony, but the man was missing, constantly missing. He missed his friend. He thought back to his conversation with Wanda, and what his feelings were towards Tony, he thought it was just friendship but in the end he was lying to himself, because he knew there was something more and he had torn it apart.

"I'm sorry," he said to no one in particular, and to the person he wanted most to hear it. He was sorry for everything that he had done, and the cost of it all, because he lost the one person he had been so close to ever since he had woken up. "I'm sorry Tony."

* * *

Lucas Friar grew up hearing stories about the great Captain America, it was normal when you grew up with Peggy Carter as your great aunt, he was the youngest member of his family and knew about everything when it came to the legacy of the Carter family name. He sometimes wondered growing up why they never found Captain America, but hearing the stories from Aunt Peggy made Lucas want to be more and more like the members of his family. He dreamed of working side by side with the Captain, and becoming a superhero spy like his aunt had been. This was normal, even his cousin Sharon had become an agent, so he worked with her and trained since childhood to become an agent of SHIELD.

When Captain America was found he was ecstatic, that a part of his life was once again around, it only solidified his dream, but everyone told him that he was too young and that he should just focus on becoming the best that he can in school. "That's what Captain America would want," his mother had told him. So he did, he worked hard and helped kids who were being bullied, he did everything he could to become the best of the best.

That's how Lucas met Isadora, his closest friend, she was awkward at times but she was also extremely smart and he swore that she would change the world with just her mind, if she didn't become a super villain. She was one of his closest friends, and they worked together on everything. She was a year ahead in school so they were in the same grade, he even convinced her to join SHIELD one day. In middle school they met Farkle, who was just as smart as Isadora, but kept to himself most of the time. So Lucas brought him into their weird little friendship and they became closer than ever. The three of them volunteered for park clean-up, and were always partners in their classes.

Farkle always made plans, and put together all kinds of scientific things that Lucas could never understand, but he encouraged him especially when Lucas knew that the genius was getting close to something. He did the same thing for Isadora who was more tech savvy and would hack into a multitude of systems trying to find a new puzzle to get through. Lucas would always climb to the highest building in their neighborhood just to set up her uplink, he was more athletic so it was easier for him. This wasn't normal things for middle schoolers to be doing but for the three of them it was a challenge for each of their abilities.

When SHIELD fell he was fourteen years old, and he saw his dreams fall down in front of him, but every new threat meant that there was still a chance. The Avengers operated out of New York and they were inside of Stark Tower, which Lucas didn't really like since he knew what the Stark legacy had once been, but he could work with that. His Aunt Peggy had told him not to judge Tony Stark, but how could he not judge the man when his entire fortune had been built on years of selling weapons and the deaths of so many people.

"But Steve doesn't judge him," she had said in one of her more lucid moments.

When Aunt Peggy died, Lucas had cried for a week, he barely remembered the funeral even though it was his chance to meet the Captain. As he helped carry his Aunt's coffin down the church. The woman had been more that a family member to Lucas, she had been his closest friend. He loved his friends, but Aunt Peggy was something more, she was the one who told him stories, and taught him how to be a better person. She showed him everything about her life, and in turn Lucas told her about his friends and all the things he did around the city.

So he tried his best to like Tony Stark and to be a good person because that's what Aunt Peggy would have wanted, until the fight at the airport over the Accords, after that Lucas knew that he was right when it came to his dislike of the man even more. Lucas watched everything that happened since, even when that purple man attacked the world over some stupid bejeweled glove. Now at seventeen years old he was given the chance to become a part of a new school set up by SHIELD, his Sharon had gotten him into the school because she had told them of his potential and he was excited about it all. He was going to get the chance to be a part of SHIELD and work with Captain America just like Aunt Peggy had.

He had asked Sharon to help his friends join as well, because he wasn't going to leave them behind. They were a team and they worked well together, he didn't want to give that up only to have to learn the habits of a new group of people without them. Plus he felt that he would be lost without them, they had been there for him through the thick of it, he did the same for them, they were in a way their own kind of family. So the three of them were now moving into the dorms at the SHIELD Academy and starting a new phase of their lives together.


	2. Chapter 2 - Mornings are about Trial &

**A/N: So it would seem that somethings weren't made clear in the first chapter, I already talked to _naelacy_ about some of it, but mostly I fixed one problem [which was a error that I was supposed to delete] the other is in regards to Rhodey and Zay, if you're not familiar with Marvel then you don't know that Tony considers Rhodey his family, they roomed together at MIT, they've been friends for decades, they're more like brothers. I went into this story with that in mind, Happy and Pepper are in the same boat, along with Jarvis the AI and Tony's bots DUM-E and U, that's his family until the Avengers. Sorry I didn't clarify that, but I hope that you will still enjoy the story as it goes along.  
**

 **Now for the second part of this Author's note - this is more of a heads up, I have a two month deadline to finish up a manuscript I'm writing, so it might push back some of my fanfic projects, maybe not I don't know yet. I'm going to try and keep updating this fic as much as I can as well as my other fic... I just need a schedule to go by.**

* * *

 **Chapter Two – Mornings are about Trial and Error…. A lot of Errors**

Mornings are something else in the Stark house, for one Riley would be lucky if she could function without coffee something she inherited from her father, and something her mother wished she hadn't. Breakfast normally consisted of whatever was on hand in the kitchen, cooking was a rare occasion unless Vision was around to cook something, but ever since he got together with Wanda that was rare, but he did have weekly dinner dates with both her dad and her. This morning on the other hand saw a rare sight in the kitchen, her father cooking breakfast dressed in a full three-piece Tom Ford suit.

"Well either I'm hallucinating or you've been taken over by the pod people," she said as she sat down on the counter next to the coffee machine.

Her father laughed as he pulled out two plates and started spooning eggs and bacon into the both of them. "No pod people, but I figured that if we were going to fight the wolves today we might as well be well fed."

Riley sighed, she knew what was going to happen, they had discussed it after Uncle Nick had come over, today marked the beginning of their six-month deal. The world would know that she was a Stark only after he had revealed that he was the Director of SHIELD and not Uncle Nick.

"I know this is hard dad, but in the end the world would have had to know," she said knowing the extent of what they were about to do. "You can't keep hiding behind Uncle Nick, you really can't. You pay for everything you sign all of the paperwork, even though you say you hate it I know you really love it, they need to know or else it would just blow up in your face the minute they find out the truth."

He looked at her, while holding out a plate full of food. "I doubt myself, you know that. I'm good with machines, but people not so much, and yes I know a lot of people but how many of them can I actually say are close to me. I keep everyone at a distance for a reason."

There were many reasons, but they all stemmed to trust issues that kept getting worse over time, only a select few had gotten close to her father to the point where he would let his guard down. Outside of them, he had this mask, a fake persona that her mother hated, but was good for getting the job done at S.I. In front of Riley her father was a different person, and she wished that the outside world would be able to see that man because he was nothing like what the tabloids painted him as.

They ate in silence, which wasn't normal for either of them since they both liked to talk, but the weight of their morning kept them from saying anything that would shatter the resolve her father had built up. When they were done, they called Happy to drive him to the Academy, while Riley rode her bicycle, the school was close so it would take her twenty minutes if she went through the woods. Her father was going to drive around which would take him about ten minutes, less if Happy drove at top speed.

"I'll see you later Dad," she said as she took off. At school he would be Director Stark, just the man who ran the Avengers. She had always wished that she would be able to call him Dad in public, she dreamed of it, but she's never had the chance because of course no one knew she existed.

Riley knew the route to school by heart, she had been riding it every day since she was told that she could go to the Academy. It was bumpy and crazy, and she loved it. There was no set path in the woods behind their house except for the tracks from her mountain bike, the fresh air in her face, and the thrill of pedaling as fast as she could. She always wondered if that's how her father felt when he flew, and wished that the day she would be able to fly next to him would give her the greater thrill.

As she reached the hill behind the Academy, she smiled and rode towards the ramp near the front to see how fast she could hit it, she ending up going up the ramp a little too fast before she went flying towards the entrance. Her eyes went wide as she nearly collided with a boy with dark sandy blonde hair and green eyes.

"Watch out," she yelled as she turned her body hoping to stop her decent before she could hit him.

* * *

Lucas was excited because it was the first day, and although it was only orientation he couldn't believe that he was getting this opportunity at all. He jumped out of bed and looked around at his room, the students at the school each had their own room, but shared a bathroom with their neighbor. Farkle, lucky for Lucas was his neighbor so they already knew their morning routines, Lucas liked to jog early in the morning while Farkle normally slept until seven. But since it was the first day neither one would be sticking to their normal daily life, instead Lucas looked at the orientation schedule as he got ready and waited for Farkle to finish.

"Dude what's taking so long?" Lucas said to the closed door as he heard the water running on the other side.

"Sorry," Farkle grumbled. "Go walk around outside, I'll meet you in ten."

"Alright, if you see Isa, bring her with you," Lucas said before walking out of the dorm room.

All around him everyone was waking up and talking to their new neighbors, it was strange, there was only about twenty of them living there, and less than fifty who were admitted. It was a pilot program for SHIELD, or at least that's what Sharon had told him. They wanted to train the best and brightest for the future of the agency, which meant that it was going to be a long road ahead of him. He walked to the mess hall and found Isadora sitting at a table typing into her laptop, a cup of tea and a tray load of muffins surrounding her.

"Hey Isa, what are you doing?" he said sitting down and grabbing a muffin off her tray.

"I've been trying to get a handle on the security of this place," she said looking up at him and glaring at him for stealing her muffin. "I almost cracked it this morning and then got booted off by someone with the username FRIDAY, what kind of handle is that anyway?"

"Seriously we've been here for less than a day and you're already trying to hack into the place, did the wall piss you off or something?"

"No," she said taking the muffin back from his hand. "Get your own food Luc, there's a whole cafeteria here you know, and anyway I just wanted to add some of my own stuff into the system, but apparently if I want to do that I have to talk to the director which is stupid since I doubt he knows anything about complex security systems."

"Not really I mean isn't the director of the school also the director of SHIELD," Farkle said as he joined them. "I on the other hand want to get a look at the labs, I heard that one of the lab teachers is the Hulk and I want to ask him about somethings regarding gamma radiation since he's an expert in that field."

"My friends are trouble makers I swear," Lucas said rolling his eyes, he loved them anyway. "Don't get into too much trouble. I'm going to look around outside before orientation."

"Whatever, and take the muffin since you already tainted it," Isadora said handing it back to him. She always fought him when it came to food, especially since her family didn't have much while she was growing up. Her first laptop had been his old one and she took it apart within five minutes of him giving it to her. Farkle was a different story, his family had money, but he just ignored it and studied science, all the sciences in fact, it was a wonder that he had went to school normally and hadn't gotten into Columbia or NYU.

He wandered around the grounds near where the forest was lined up near the entrance, he was curious as to why the place was in such a closed off location, it wasn't an army base, but no one was around for miles according to the map of the area. If they wanted to go somewhere they needed to take shuttle buses provided by the school, across the way he can see the Avenger's Facility, it was strange being so close to the world he has wanted to be a part of for so long.

He hadn't been paying attention when he heard someone scream out to him and a bicycle came flying towards him. Jumping out of the way he landed on the grass as the rider slid to a stop on the pavement.

"Are you freaking nuts or something?" he yelled out as he stood up off the ground and came face to face with a brunette girl with wide eyes smiling at him.

"It can be debated, though I didn't think that anyone would be near this area when I decided to ride my bike today," she said as she pulled off her helmet revealing long soft curls of hair.

He couldn't understand why she captivated him so instead he focused on his anger. "I'm pretty sure you flying out of the woods like that is reckless, and why were you even in there?"

"I always ride through there," she said to him dusting off dirt from her jeans. "Why were you standing so close to the trees anyway?"

"I was just freaking walking, and I'm pretty sure you're trespassing on private property if you were in those woods. This land belongs to a government agency, so unless you want someone to arrest you I'd suggest you stop whatever it is that you do in there."

"Well excuse me sassy pants, I just didn't want to be late, so I'll be going now," she said to him taking off on her bike, her hair flying in the wind.

"Late for what?" he said to himself before looking at his watch realizing that he was going to be late for orientation. "Crap."

Riley couldn't believe the guy had the nerve, of course she knew the land was privately owned, because it belonged to her family, she wasn't going to tell him that but she wanted to. She rode her bike to where the rack was and locked it into place. No one would steal it, especially since it was the only bike around and it was a secure facility but she knew that you could never be too careful. The bike was built by her father as a present when he realized just how much she liked to ride through the woods, and after destroying two different bikes he wanted her to have something that would last.

"You know you have this weird look on your face," she heard someone say from behind her, when she turned around she came face to face with Zay.

"Hey there," she said pulling him into a hug. "I'm so glad you're here, I need a friendly face."

"Care to hug me too," said a familiar voice from the other side, smiling she turned and saw Peter standing there. She launched herself at him and pulled him close. Peter wasn't going to be a student full time, he wanted to stay in Queens with his Aunt, but he had decided on doing weekend work at the school, which meant they were going to be able to hang out together during that time.

"My friends are here," she said pulling both of the guys close. "Now I can be happy for a little while."

"What happened?" Zay asked looking at her.

"Nothing, just ran… well almost plastered another student with my bike, but the guy was a total jerk he threatened to have me arrested for trespassing."

Peter laughed, which made Zay laugh, Riley just rolled her eyes and looked around, one person was missing from their group, she spotted Ned sitting in the shade not too far away. Riley knew that he couldn't really keep up with Peter but tried his best, she walked up to him leaving the two laughing behind her and put her arm around Ned.

"I say we have a tournament this weekend," she said to Ned smiling.

"That's something I can get behind," Ned said smiling back at her. The two of them bonded over video games after they had met, and continuously have online matches whenever they could.

After Zay and Peter regained their composure, the four friends walked to the school, only Zay knew who Riley really was, Uncle Rhodey was family, he had always been family, ever since her father went to MIT, but she wanted to tell Peter, because she wanted to help him like Ned did whenever he was Spiderman. She wanted her own team, so that maybe she could one day help her father instead of just being in the background.

They walked into the hall that was holding the orientation, less than a hundred students along with teachers, who were either Avengers or SHIELD agents, it was a madhouse. Everyone was talking all at once, excited tones from them all, being chosen as the first students was a huge step, her father knew that this was an important venture but mostly he wanted all of these people to live up to their potential. They didn't have to become a part of SHIELD afterwards, but they would be given the option.

Tony had gone through his speech several times, he had gone through it with Rhodey and Maria Hill who was working with him and Pepper in the background. Pepper was running Stark Industries, Hill was working between him and Fury. He didn't know if this was a good idea, he kept doubting himself, but he made a promise to his daughter and he wanted her to be proud of him more than anything. He had been the shadow of SHIELD for a while now, he was the director even though Fury acted as though he was at the helm. In the reality of it all the reason he hadn't come forward earlier had been because the Avengers were once again under the same umbrella and he didn't want to end up fracturing it.

It was guilt that kept him from saying anything, he couldn't talk to them anymore and the ones he still talked to he couldn't bring himself to tell them either. It was a secret he had wanted to keep, but Riley has been his cheerleader behind the scenes and if she wanted to tell the world that she was a Stark then he could be truthful as well. Happy had driven slowly on purpose, his friend and driver knew that his choices were eating at him. He didn't argue with Tony about right and wrong, instead he was just there as a friend like Rhodey and Pepper had both been. His little family.

The Accords were needed, they still were needed, maybe not the way they had been initially but he had worked through them and made sure that the former Avengers were absolved of what had happened. He stepped back after the War with the Infinity Stones, he had hid himself from them, and worked on what was normal. He was trying to be good and not stir anything up, but he couldn't ignore the threats coming, they never ended, so in the end he needed to do what he did best, he needed to push his feelings aside and work on keeping the world safe.

Fury was waiting for him the moment he stepped inside of the school, it was built with his tech, FRIDAY ran security while he went back and forth from his own house to the Avenger's Facility across the way. Usually he only hung out with Bruce in the lab, but now all of the Avengers had to be on hand with the students, they needed the next generation of SHIELD more than anything. The threats kept building up and in the end they couldn't do it alone anymore.

"You know," he said as he walked with Fury towards the hall. "I keep thinking that this is a horrible idea, one of many, but I also know that the world needs us, and we keep working to keep it from falling apart."

"I know you don't want to do this," Fury said to him stopping just outside the doors. "So tell me Stark why now?"

"I made a promise," he said shrugging his shoulders. "I for one want to keep it, even when it will probably go to shit the moment I utter the words Director Stark, Rogers will probably be on my ass the moment I step outside of the room."

Fury nodded and walked inside, the curtains covered his face, no one knew that he was there, all they knew was that the Director of SHIELD was going to give the welcoming speech. And Fury was going to be the one to introduce him, but it didn't stop him from wanting to bolt out of the room and hide in the office he had across the giant lawn. An office he hadn't used because no one knew it was him running everything.

"Bad idea," he said.

He remembered something that Riley had told him after the airport fight, after the fight in Siberia, after he had made sure that Rhodey could walk again. _"You shouldn't feel guilty for wanting to do something right, it's their fault for not listening, not yours, remember you have your family, and if they don't realize just how much they screwed up, well screw them."_

A broken family was what they all were, Riley knew that and she wanted him to mend those broken fences, even if it meant doing something that would cause another rift. He had almost missed his name being called by Fury, but he walked out and looked around the room. Nearly two hundred people looking at him with surprised faces. He spotted Riley, along with Peter and Zay who were all smiling at him. Those kids were as much his family than anyone else. The next generation. Then he saw Rogers standing across the room, his eyes wide, it was the first time they had physically been in the same room since Thanos, that battle was over, but onto the next one.

He took a deep breath before he spoke.

Steve's morning had been so normal, he was excited about the students coming in, it was different, it was another distraction. He ran at five in the morning with Sam and Bucky, more like he ran while the other two jogged and talked. Distractions that's what his morning were filled with. He had breakfast with Natasha, who wasn't in the mood for anything that morning because she had to deal with so much so early in the day. For someone who was a trained assassin, she hated mornings the most.

"I'm more of a night person," she had told him once and he just laughed.

Seeing all of the students walking into the new school building gave him hope for the future, that maybe Tony would show up and they could finally have a proper talk. When Fury had told him that Tony was going to have an active role in the school, as well as SHIELD he had given Steve hope for something he thought that he would have to give up on. Hope that he would be able to repair their friendship completely. To fix their makeshift family.

So there he was standing there in a room full of students mostly under the age of twenty-one, with a shocked look on his face as Nick Fury, who he had thought was the Director of the place, was introducing the Director of SHIELD.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the Director of SHIELD, Tony Stark," Fury had said. Steve felt the floor fall beneath him, he didn't want secrets but apparently they had kept the biggest one from everyone in the place. He looked over at Nat who had had a surprised look on her face before schooling her features like she normally did. Across the room Bucky and Sam both had similar looks on the faces. Steve couldn't move, it was like the air was being sucked out of the room, and then Tony started talking.

"This may come as a surprise to many of you, but there are reasons why my position hadn't been revealed until now, but that's not what we're here for, what we're here for is the next generation of SHIELD, the next generation of the world's intelligence community, as well as the scientific community, and the security of the world. You are all the future of our world as we know it, the best and brightest, and I want to give you all the warmest of welcomes as you become the first students of this little Avenger's Academy. Your teachers, Avengers and SHIELD agents, are here to help you, that includes myself. I want something more this place, and something more for the world we live in. I don't want people to live in fear of those who have powers, or those in power," Steve felt the air leave his body, this was directly said to the Avengers, not the students. Steve knew it, because in the end he knew Tony was trying to tell him something.

"We need to work together because even though we know that there are worlds outside of our own, this planet is our home and we need to protect it." _But we do protect it you idiot_ , he thought to himself. What he truly needed to say, was probably sorry for causing the problem that had fractured their family, that was another conversation.

"So I welcome you, the next generation, to the new face of our agency, and I hope that you are all ready to change the world, to keep it safe. That is the first mission I'm giving you all, the world needs us, and we need them. Their protection is our number one priority, so let's work together to keep it safe."

When Tony was done he smiled at everyone before walking off of the stage, everyone in the room was stunned at what had just happened but Steve moved the moment Tony started walking. He hadn't seen the man in such a long time, he didn't know if he would ever have this chance again, but when he reached the corridor, the man he was searching for had disappeared.

Tony was hiding, he knew that they would come out looking for him the minute he had finished talking, he had kept it short on purpose. He was acting like Riley had when she was five and had broken a vase that Pepper had said cost ten grand. He hadn't cared about the vase, he would have burned it if he could, he cared about whether she had been hurt. In the end he knew they, mainly a specific they, wanted to make amends but in the end the hurt was still buried in his heart.

Instead of waiting to be found hiding in a dark corner, he walked away and went to his office, because he'd be damned if they found him hiding. He might as well face them on his own terms instead of being somewhere that they could gang up on him and have the whole world see. He hadn't been inside of the office since he finished the remodel, in fact he had locked it up and made sure no one except the cleaning staff went inside. On his desk was a picture of Riley with her arms around Zay, and Peter, Ned standing next to him, while Tony was behind Riley, and Rhodey was next to Zay. It was a family photo, to replace all the ones he had thrown into a box so long ago. It was also the first on where he was with his daughter and it wouldn't look suspicious to anyone outside of his inner circle.

He thought back to the time him and Steve shared a room at the Barton farm, how he had almost told him about Riley, because he wanted to make sure that at least someone had known. Instead he talked about everything but that, while Steve told him to shut up around two in the morning before turning away from him and falling asleep. He had been more afraid of the nightmares coming back, they had been few and far between but sometimes they lingered. So he was surprised when he ended up sleeping through the night, only waking up to the feeling of being overly warm, with Steve wrapped around him like an octopus. It took him a good ten minutes to untangle himself, and he regretted it because it felt comfortable, but he didn't know how the other man would feel.

"So many things I would have done differently," he said to the empty office.

The chair at his desk turned around revealing a familiar red headed assassin looking back at him, the last time he had seen her she had been blonde.

"Nice to see you went back to normal," he said to her giving her a small smile. "Now get out of my chair, I'm exhausted."

"You have a couch right there Stark," she said making him wince at the use of his last name. "Everyone else is looking around for you near the hall, of course I knew better."

"Yeah yeah," he mumbled as he walked over towards his chair and propped himself on his desk. "What do you want Widow?"

"Why?" she asked looking at him. "Why have you been hiding, why all the secrecy, why all of this? Tony you pay for everything and yet you act like you're not a part of the team anymore."

"Because I'm not, I'm the Director of SHIELD and your boss."

"Honestly you and Rogers need a swift kick in the ass, how long are you both going to keep dancing around each other?" she covered her eyes for a moment before looking back at him. "No more of this, whatever it is, you have to talk to each other, Steve feels awful."

"About which part," he interrupted her. "The hiding the truth part? The part where he smashed in the reactor in my suit and almost killed me by smashing the one in my chest? About leaving me in Siberia with a disabled suit? Yeah Widow, I know he feels guilty, we had this talk before but in the end, I did everything for the Avengers, for all of us and in the end you all left me in the end, my own family or at least those I thought were my family, but I guess in the end there's no one to blame but myself, for getting comfortable."

"Tony," she said but the door slammed open and the man of the hour was staring back at him. The man looked like a Greek god hell bent on finding his mark. Romanoff stood up and walked to the door, "Talk now," she said before she disappeared.

"I'm sorry Tony," Steve said closing the door behind himself cutting off the only way Tony had to get out. "About everything."

"I don't care about it," he said trying to push his way past a super soldier.

"I heard what you said to Nat, and you're right we all took advantage of you, and we all need to make amends for how we handled everything, it's going to take some time but we need to work together on this."

Tony huffed for a moment looking at the man in front of him. "You came here for another reason, that was only a part of it, you don't like the fact that my position was kept from you, but I doubt any of you ever noticed who signs your paperwork."

"I don't care Tony, I think that it's a good idea for you to be the Director, in the end you might be the only one truly qualified for it outside of Nick Fury."

"Yeah well when I took over and recreated SHIELD I wanted to have the top position, call it ego if you want."

Steve sighed, he knew that this was going to be difficult, he had forgiven Tony for everything a long time ago, when he ran into several problems with some of the missions he had been running as the Nomad, it was when he had realized why parts of the Accords made sense. It had been too late at that moment, he had only had a one train of thought during that time and it all had to do with keeping Bucky alive. All of the mistakes had been made, and in the end of it all a lot of those mistakes had been his own.

"I know I should have brought you in when I found Buck, I know I made mistakes, we all did, but for once can we try and put it all behind ourselves and try to move forward?"

When Tony didn't say anything Steve just stood there eyeing the man hoping that if they were locked in the room long enough they would get somewhere.

Natasha sat outside of the office feeling that if those two didn't come out fixed, or at least talking again. She knew she should have stayed with Tony after Leipzig, that she should have not helped Steve. She was the one stuck in the middle between the two most stubborn men on the planet, and all because she was their friend. By picking to help Steve, by ignoring Tony, she felt like she had picked between her family. They were all at fault for everything that had happened, but it feels like she was carrying around a lot of the baggage over it all because her decisions caused the catalyst for everything else.

"You know you don't have to feel guilty over everything that happened," James said as he stood next to her.

"The guilt is my own," she said to him.

He sighed and pulled her closer to him. "Then it's mine as well, we both have a lot of guilt when it comes to those two, we made decisions and in the end they all backfired."

"You didn't make a lot of those choices on your own, you were a brainwashed assassin remember?"

"Yeah but you were also being controlled by the Red Room, and don't start on the, I knew what I was doing I wasn't brainwashed like you were shtick, they controlled you as much as Hydra controlled me."

"You think if those two ever knew about our joint past they would be angry, they only know that you shot me to get to your target, they don't know the rest," she said leaning into him. They had found comfort in each other after the war with Thanos, it was strange because it reminded her of the past they had shared.

"Just stop thinking about it, one day when everything is back to normal, well at least the normal from before it all went to shit, then maybe we can tell them together. For now let work on getting them to stay in the same room without everything exploding."

Inside of the room neither man had said a word, they just stared at one another as though they were in the longest staring contest in the history of man.

"This was a mistake," Tony had said after another five minutes, he should have stayed a secret, stayed away from the facility.

"No it wasn't, I don't care that you're the director, I don't give a shit," Steve said and Tony tried to stop himself from laughing because the man had cursed but he couldn't help himself and started laughing.

"I never thought you would ever curse," he laughed even hard remembering that day at the Hydra base in Sokovia when Steve had called him out for using the exact same word.

"Seriously, that breaks the tension one curse word, I could have just said the word fuck and you would have laughed."

Tony started laughing harder to the point that he was hugging himself, the Captain had said a dirty word and his brain automatically reacted. It took him five minutes of gasping for air before he regained his composure.

"Let's do this, in baby steps," he said once he could breathe again. "The Avengers meetings, briefings, tech upgrades, and dinner once a week with the new recruits, we all do this together."

"What like therapy?" Steve said astonished at the change of heart.

"In a way yeah, I mean it's better that way I guess," he was trying to be an adult, but he was also hoping that it didn't blow up in his face. "I mean I probably need a lot of therapy but I can't keep all of this bottled up anymore. Someone told me that I just need to learn to let go and move on, maybe this is the first step I have to take."

"That was a very wise person," Steve said looking Tony in the eye. He wasn't going to tell the man that the person who had said that to him was a teenage girl, or that she was someone he would have to deal with in class the next day.

"That they are, now go away I have papers to sign and missions to set up, and Director things to do," he said waving his hand hoping that Steve would take the hint and leave.

"See you later Shellhead," Steve said before walking out of the room leaving him alone with his own thoughts.

"What have I gotten myself into," he said as he sat down on his chair, it was a really comfortable chair, and he could pass out in it but instead he decided to be an adult and actually do his work since he promised someone that he would be home for dinner.

He thought back to when Riley had told to learn to live and let go, she had been worried about him, and although he didn't have a therapist, his daughter was someone who would always listen to him and come up with the best solutions. She was going to be a wonderful leader one day, or a really cleaver super villain.

Riley was pacing around the hallway near her father's office, everything happened so fast and she went there without thinking. Peter, Ned and Zay had all followed her, since they all knew her father in one way or another, and they wanted to check in with him. Her worry was more about whether or not he was alright, but when they got near his office Black Widow and the Winter Soldier were waiting outside of the door. The four friends just spied from afar, they couldn't hear anything the two former assassins were talking about. Well maybe Peter could but he didn't say anything so they just waited. It took another ten minutes before they left, and Steve Rogers came out of her father's office.

"Let's wait to make sure no one else is coming out of the room," Peter said holding them back.

So they waited another five minutes before making their way down the corridor towards the Director's office.

"Who's first?" Ned asked them as they stood outside the door.

"Maybe one by one, I mean he did just have two former assassins and a super soldier outside of his door," Peter said.

Instead of waiting Riley just opened the door and stuck her head in, "Hi," she said as her father looked up from a stack of papers in front of him.

"Hey sweetheart," he said making Riley cringe, her father caught on and realized his mistake. They weren't at home so anything father daughter related was off limits. The door swung open when Peter pushed against it, shocked from the endearment.

"Well this is a little awkward," Zay said knowing the secret.

Riley grabbed Ned and Peter and pulled them inside before closing the door, Peter looked stunned for a moment before he could say anything. Ned was just looking at the wall like he was trying to ignore what had just happened. Riley watched as her father rubbed the bridge of his nose before sighing.

"Bad ideas today," he murmured before looking back at the four friends. "Peter, Ned sit down for a minute so I can explain something, and to print out the non-disclosure agreement."

"Wait Mr. Stark… what exactly is happening?" Peter said when the stunned expression left his face. "Are you and Riley, in some kind of relationship?"

"Eww no… just no," Riley said as Zay started laughing.

"Riley's my daughter Peter, the NDR is so that you don't tell anyone about her, it's a Stark family secret," he said as the printer started printing out the forms without being prompted. FRIDAY was on top of it.

"I knew you were keeping something from me," Peter said looking at Riley who just shrugged. "Why not tell me in the first place?"

"At first it was because I was mad at you, because my dad brought you in made you a hero and I was stuck at home being a good little Stark, afterwards well it was a secret, Zay knows because of Uncle Rhodey, but no one, not even the Avengers knew about me… Well except Vision but he used to be JARVIS, but anyway…. I blabbing."

"Yes you are," her father said smiling, before getting up and pulling her into a hug. "Anyway, the NDR is a precaution and I trust you both but it has to happen."

"Why keep it a secret?" Ned asked.

"To give her a normal life, and Starks are not normal, but I wanted her to have that chance."

"Does this mean we can finally go to that wing of your house that we're never allowed to go to?" Peter asked curious.

"No," Riley answered. "You're not allowed anywhere near my bedroom Peter."

* * *

Lucas couldn't believe anything that had happened, any of it. His day had been half great because he could see his hero, and half a big mess that started the minute some ridiculous girl almost ran him over with a mountain bike. Now it turned out that the man he had despised was actually the head of the organization he had wanted to be a part of all of his life.

"That was unexpected," Farkle said but Lucas pulled away from his friends and went looking for Sharon.

The blonde wasn't far from the exit where all of the other students were walking towards, since the reception was outside on the lawn between the school and the Avengers facility. He looked at his cousin for a moment as she directed people left and right before walking up to her and pulling her aside.

"Is this for real?" he asked, knowing that Sharon knew what he meant.

"Lucas, I don't know why you don't like Tony Stark but you can't let it get to you, even Aunt Peggy told you that you should be kinder to those around you," Sharon said as she put her arm around him. "You're my family and I love you but you have to get your head out of your ass."

"Yeah well it hasn't been a good morning," he mumbled knowing that she heard him.

"You sound like the grouchy little boy I remember," she ruffled his hair and walked him towards the reception area. "Just give him a chance, a lot has changed since the Civil War."

"Yeah you stopped dating Captain America."

"Well that was inevitable considering it felt like I had become a placeholder for someone else, anyway the two of us are better off as friends."

"Whatever, maybe I should have let that girl slam her bike into me this morning just to put me out of my misery."

"I'm going to put you out of your misery, just buck up and grow up, we can't all have some idealized future. Plus, Steve is one of the commanding officers and he's also training you all, so you still win in a way."

Sharon was attempting to make him feel better and it was working until he saw her again, that girl who nearly ran him over. He had sworn that she had been trespassing but there she was talking to three guys, smiling, he could feel a tug in his chest, but he pushed it aside for a moment. He had a chance to make it right with one person at this school, but instead of going to her and saying something he held himself back, talking to Sharon, introducing his friends to her as she introduced them to other SHIELD agents. All the while he was watching this girl who had appeared out of nowhere and turned his life on its side for just a moment.


	3. Chapter 3 - A Lie is Still a Lie, even

_**A/N: Sorry it took so long, I had to finish the other fic I was writing, and I started writing a novel, and on top of it all I was convinced to write my Master's thesis a whole semester ahead of schedule, and my best friend was in the hospital. My life is a mess right now, but hopefully I'll get back on track now that it's calming down a bit.**_

* * *

 **Chapter Three – A Lie is Still a Lie, even if you say it to Make Others Feel Better**

Lucas couldn't help but want to apologize for what he had said before, he hadn't known that she was one of the students at the school but he didn't know how to approach someone after how they had met. Sharon could tell that he was distracted, anyone could, after she tried to pull him into a conversation about tactical skills.

"Excuse us for a minute," she said pulling him away. "Lucas this isn't like you to be distracted."

"Sorry," he said knowing that he should be focused at that moment, he was among heroes of course he should focus. "It's just that… well you see that girl over there… I said some screwed up shit to her this morning, I mean she was riding her bike and nearly ran me over but I threatened to have her arrested for trespassing."

"Who the brunette? Her name is Riley she's one of the top students in the country outside of your friends."

"That doesn't make her special in anyway to be riding around in the woods like she had been."

"Lucas she was hand chosen by Fury to be in this school, she lives nearby from what he told us, she's been living around here long before the New Avengers Facility was even put together."

"How do you know all that?"

"I read her file the moment Fury put her at the top of the list," she shrugged before walking away.

Lucas thought about it, this girl, Riley, was at the top of the list for the students in the school, how was that even possible. He had never heard of her before, but then again he only made sure that his friends were safe, and anything about the heroes of the world. Everyone else hadn't really mattered when Captain America was a family friend.

"You're thinking too hard," Isadora said as she stood next to him. "I get the game look when I'm trying to code something."

Lucas sighed, maybe his friends knew something. "Hey Iz, do you know who that girl is?"

She watched him for a moment, before her eyes landed on the girl across the lawn. "Riley?" she answered once she realized who he was looking at. "Yeah, she's some kind of genius prodigy but she's not talked about a lot mainly because she doesn't give interviews with any magazine. I only know about her because she was in a newspaper a few months back, something about an exploding science lab."

"A what?"

"Yeah apparently she had been experimenting on some kind of chemical and the whole thing went south, the school is probably happy she's not a student there anymore, but she's really something else if she could blow something up."

The more information he got about Riley the more he couldn't figure out if she was a good person, or a villain in training. He needed to look into it, just to be on the safe side, even if she had been handpicked by Nick Fury. He was on his way to introducing himself to Riley, because the whole keep your friends close and keep your enemy closer theory, when he realized she was gone.

* * *

He did what he does best, and that was hiding. He hadn't told Riley everything, but he knew that his daughter was smart enough to realize a lie even when he hadn't said it out loud. Rogers thinks that he forgave him, but in his heart it wasn't forgiveness as much as it was a way to get everyone off his back for a little while. Speaking to his former team was bringing up too many emotions that he had buried. Peter and Vision were the only two constants in his life, Peter always hung around for advice or he was watching a movie with Riley. Vision stayed because somehow, at least this is what Tony thought, it all had to do with what was left of JARVIS. Vision was a part of his family, his real family, and they stuck together even with whatever relationship the android was having with the Witch.

A knock on the door brought him out of his thoughts and he feared the next member of the Avengers walking through the door. Instead he was greeted with the sight of his daughter for the second time that day, except this time she was alone.

"Hi Riley," he said smiling even though his heart wasn't in it.

"You can lie to everyone else in the world Dad, but you can't lie to me," she said glaring at him. "I know it took a lot to come here, to be honest about your position here, but you have to take the steps necessary to heal, please."

"Oh god you're pleading with me, and you know I'm a sucker for it because you know how to get what you want from me, I swear you get that from your mother, the woman would own a shoe store on Rodeo drive if it meant that I did my work."

"Daaadddd," she said looking at him. "No more lies, or else I'm calling Uncle Rhodey to come and sort you out, and he's worse than mom is, I know you miss them but you can't get over the hurt of it all because it was grandmother who had died. But wouldn't she want you to forgive him and start all over, isn't it time to."

Tony looked at his daughter and wondered how she had become the bigger person in all of this, but she had also lived through the aftermath and guilt of it all. She had been there when he thought no one truly cared about it all and between Rhodey, Pepper and Riley, he was able to get over everything that had happened and see that what really hurt was the dishonestly. He hadn't cared about Barnes because in the end it was Hydra who had done all of that to him, he hadn't cared that Natasha had decided to help Steve over helping him, or that Clint had antagonized him, or that Wanda had pushed Vision so far down the complex that it took weeks to fix. What had hurt the most was that they all sided with Cap in the end without thinking about how it would affect him, or that Steve had left him behind instead of helping him.

"Families fight dad and I think it's time for you to bring yourself to forgive them," she said as she stood up and walked over to where he sat behind his desk pulling him into a hug. "Even if it hurts because in the end they need you as much as you need them."

He sighed and held onto his daughter, the one constant in his life outside of Rhodey, Happy, and Pepper, the one person who knew him better than anyone. She was right, his family needed him and he couldn't lie anymore.

"Let's go home kiddo," he said as he pulled away. "Pizza tonight?"

"Yes please, I need a Riley special," she smiled. "Oh and Peter is coming over, he said something about needed an upgrade on something and sleeping over because tomorrow we have to be here at some ungodly hour."

"I doubt that nine in the morning is that evil," he said smiling.

"Says the guy who's normally up at two in the afternoon."

"Come we can grab your bike and Peter on the way out and drive to the house, I doubt there's too many people who would notice me taking the two of you home."

"If they did they wouldn't care about me, they'd thing you were up to something with Peter and I was just tagging along. Hell the last time you two tried something I had to shoot down those spider robot things you two invented," she shuddered next to him and made a face. "I don't understand how you end up mentoring the only hero with the word Spider in his name knowing how much I hate spiders."

"That was just the luck of the draw," he said pulling he into a hug. "I love you kid."

"Love you too dad," she said smiling at him.

* * *

"So all of the tykes are off to their room to get ready for bed," Sam said walking into the room Bucky not far behind him. "And I of course had to hear it from this guy over here that you went to talk to Stark."

"Sam," Steve said as a warning. He didn't want to bring that conversation up again, for some reason it still didn't feel like they had actually settled anything. The moment the feeling of happiness died he realized that Tony was good at putting up masks.

"I'm not judging, but honestly you two needed to have this conversation years ago," Sam said as he walked over to the couch in Steve's office at the facility.

Steve didn't know why he still had an office, when they had gotten back he was sure that they were all going to be thrown out. Tony was still protecting them even when none of them had helped him in anyway. There was an ache in his heart from everything that had happened, and maybe it could have all been avoided if he had actually communicated instead of throwing punches.

"Steve, you're a brat," Bucky said making Steve's head shoot up to look at him. "You're always defending the little guys, and honestly this time around it might be a good idea for you and Stark to sit down and talk. A real talk not what you had earlier, because the guilt over it all has been eating at me since that airport fight, since my memories had begun to surface. Since Nat started helping me."

"But you didn't do anything wrong," Steve said, it was an automatic reflex and it had carried him through it all but in the end when everything had been falling apart around him he couldn't figure out where one part of himself began and the other part ended.

"Stevie, I did a lot of things wrong," Bucky said putting his arm around Steve's shoulders. "And yes I wasn't in my right mind but I know that I should have made a decision long before anything happened between you and your new life."

"There's a lot of what ifs running around here," Sam said looking at the two of them. "In the end I think it's time to stop thinking about the what could have been, and start thinking about what could be."

Steve couldn't help but smile, they were both right in a way, the past had a way of creeping up on you and tearing everything down. But now where they were, it was time to let it go in favor of repairing their relationships and trying to make everything better. Steve knew that hating himself wasn't going to fix anything. Things that needed to be fixed were supposed to be talked out with the other person.

"How about we drop by Stark's house and get you two talking?" Sam said to him breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Sam isn't it a little late in the day, maybe we can talk tomorrow after my morning class," he said before sitting at his desk.

"I still can't believe that they want us to teach a bunch of kids," Bucky said as he sat down next to Sam.

"Yeah just imagine what's going to happen when they stand in front of the Winter Soldier, and they all piss their pants," Sam said with the most serious look on his face before he started laughing.

Bucky started laughing after a moment, and Steve soon joined them, because honestly he just needed something to laugh about and not think about having to fix anything. In the end he realized was that he wanted his normal life back, those silly smiles he used to give Tony, the shared jokes, their friendship was what he missed the most.

* * *

When they left the school no one had spared a second glance at Riley leaving with her father and with Peter, she had been right about that. Spiderman was Iron Man's protégé, Riley was Peter's friend in the eyes of these people so of course they wouldn't give her a second glance the minute they all piled into the car.

Riley was tired, it had been a long day, and Zay went off with Ned to his house because they wanted to go over some game. So movie night was going to be just the three of them four if Happy joined them, five if Vision showed up. It was these normal days that Riley had dreamed about for so long, and even though the amount of people who knew her true identity was growing, they were still close friends that she trusted the most.

"So what movie should we watch?" she asked as they drove down the road. "We still haven't seen Rogue One, because we've been waiting for Peter to come over."

"Yes, we have to see it, I yelled at Ned the other day for trying to spoil it and he said it's been out for months so why haven't I seen it yet," Peter said to her from the front seat, turning around to look at them in the back.

"Eyes up front Pete," her father said. "Happy doesn't like it when you turn around like that."

"Sorry," Peter answered turning around.

Riley couldn't help but laugh, it was just like her father to protect everyone even in the car. The ride took another ten minutes but once they were home Riley excused herself change into something more comfortable. The whole day had been one whirlwind to another, and she knew it was going to take some time to get her life straight, especially when she was trying to fix the damage that had happened during the civil war.

"God I hate that name," she said once she was in yoga pants and an oversized shirt. Civil war implies that eventually there's a chance at fixing things right, if she read history correct once wars end all it took was two parties to reconcile right. She wanted her father to have the people he saw as family to come together once again.

She walked back downstairs as soon as the pizzas arrived and sat down in the living room, it was normal for them to eat take out while watching movies. They ate in the dining room when one of them cooked something just so they could talk and have a normal conversation. Those were usually family dinners with Uncle Rhodey, Zay, and her mother. Other than that they usually found something to watch and ate their food on the couch or the floor.

"So what's it like?" Peter asked sitting next to her. "Being the daughter of the great Tony Stark."

Riley couldn't help but smile, she had gotten so used to having Peter around that conversations with him felt natural. Now that he knew the truth it would probably become a regular occurrence, since he spent more time with her and her dad than anyone else outside of family.

"Well I get prototypes of all of Dad's tech," she smiled for the first time since she met Pete she could actually say dad around him. "I have my own lab, and he lets me do whatever I want. FRIDAY was created by me, so of course when he decided to use her after… well you know… and you're A.I. was modeled from her and JARVIS together, so of course you get a parenting A.I."

"I didn't know FRIDAY was yours, it must be weird though, you grew up here," he said gesturing towards the room, but she shook her head.

"I grew up with a family in the city, that's why my last name is Matthews, the people who act as my parents in the public are normal, they're nice, and whenever I have vacations they let me stay with my dad," she was grateful towards the Matthews for everything they had done. "After Afghanistan, I started having nightmares about losing my dad, so I started staying with him more often, until the Avengers started. I went to boarding school just to stay close, Mrs. Matthews works in the S.I. legal department, my mom set it up."

"Who's your mom?" he asked and she smiled.

"The one and only Pepper Potts."

"Your mom is the CEO of the company, and yet you were kept in the dark from everyone."

"Pretty much, remember my dad wanted me to have a normal childhood, but I doubt he factored becoming a superhero into all of that."

Peter leaned back into the couch as the movie started and looked back at her, "Sorry your dad picked me to join him during the… you know."

"I got over it… in a way," she smiled. "You want to see something that not even my dad knows about?"

"Can we take the pizza with us?"

"Yes, we'll be back so just take a slice or two," she smiled before taking the one she had been eating in her hand and walking off. "Come on Spiderboy."

"It's Spiderman," he said standing up.

"You're under twenty-one so you're still a boy, and plus if you want in on this family, nicknames and teasing are a part of the package."

"Your dad calls me Underoos," he said smiling. "What's your nickname?"

"I don't have one like that, he calls me sweetheart, mini-me, sometimes princess when he wants to," she shrugged her shoulders. "I think it's his way of inducting a person into the family… well with the exception of the bad guys, at that point he's just trying to annoy them."

Riley walked off, grabbing onto Peter's arm and dragging him towards the entrance of her side of the workshop, usually when the guys were there and she was there as well the windows would be blacked out. Her mother hated that she tinkered like her father, but she made sure that every safety protocol was in place for her. Riley keyed in her code and watched as the windows went from black to clear. Like her father's workshop you needed codes in order to get inside, but Riley put in her own safety measures, for times when she was working on her Iron Warrior armor.

"This is pretty cool," Peter said as they walked inside.

"Yeah, but not as cool as this," she said as the back wall opened up to show her armor. "My dad doesn't know it exists, and if he does he hasn't said anything about it."

While Riley was downstairs with Peter, Tony was finishing up some paperwork he had taken with him. Why he'd ever agree to actually head up a secret government agency was beyond him and he couldn't reason with himself about it either. The door to his office opened as Vision and Rhodey walked in.

"Really, today is the day you decide to pull a stunt like that?" Rhodey said sitting in the chair in front of the desk. "And of course I don't hear about it from you nooo, I have to hear about it from my own kid because I couldn't be there myself."

Vision stayed quiet nodding along with Rhodey. "Viz if you're going to say something say it," Tony said looking the android in the eye.

"I agree with Colonel Rhodes, it would have been prudent to advise us on the course of action you were going to take," Vision said.

"Sorry, it's just that well I made a promise to Riley and in the end I wasn't thinking beyond that promise."

Vision nodded and stood up. "That is understandable, now if you'll excuse me, I will leave you two alone to have your conversation."

Tony groaned knowing that Vision was actually leaving him so that Rhodey could yell at him, it was the only possible outcome to all this which also meant that they had planned this beforehand.

"So your kid convinces you to come out as the Director, which in the end means that you would have to face the rest of the team, which also means that people would either despise you or come looking for you and force you to deal with the shit storm from that ridiculous war."

Tony nodded at his friend, "Riley wants to come out to the world as a Stark, this was one of the contingencies to that plan," he said shrugging his shoulders. "No more lies to anyone."

"Okay well I didn't hear about that part of the plan."

"That's because no one really knows, I promised my kid sometimes, and well I guess in the end if I have to deal with whatever was left over I will deal with it."

"It's a lot to take on Tones," Rhodey said looking at him. "I know the team feels guilty over a lot of things, but since you won't really talk to them they sort of just stare at the blank space you left behind. War Machine isn't Iron Man, not matter how much they look alike."

He nodded, and he knew it was the truth, but he also knew that there was still a lot of work to do to get them to where they were before all of this happened. He also needed to deal with his feelings for the Avengers, as well as his own feelings for everything else.

"You want to stay for dinner?"

"Sure, Zay and Ned were playing some game so they won't notice I'm gone for a while."

The two of them walked out of the office, paperwork forgotten because he could always get back to it in the morning. When they reached the living room both Riley and Peter were missing, the Pizza sitting on the coffee table with the movie playing in the background.

"Fri, where's my kid?" Tony asked looking around the room to see where the two teens could have gone off to, and he hoped it wasn't anywhere near Riley's bedroom. All of a sudden the realization that his daughter was friends with mostly guys reared its ugly head.

"Riley's in her workshop boss," FRIDAY answered. "She's showing Mr. Parker some of her projects."

He sighed, his miniature melt down avoided. "Tell her to come up so we can watch the movie."

"Will do sir."

"You're afraid," Rhodey said smiling at him. "You're afraid of your daughter getting a boyfriend."

"Stop it," he said looking at the man. "This doesn't go beyond this, I like Peter but I'm also not opposed to kicking his ass if he hurts my girl."

"What if the guy she ends up with isn't Peter?"

"Don't put those thoughts in my head please, it weird enough to deal with a teenage girl who on chance blows up entire science labs, and get recruited for the Avengers Academy by Nick Fury."

"The Matthews must have had a hard time explaining that one."

"Yeah well I threw money at it, and she doesn't go to that school anymore anyways, she already has a master's, she only went to that school because I wanted her to have a normal life, everything else was done through correspondence."

"She's smart just like her dad, but she's also got the patience of a saint like her mother."

"That she does."

When the two teenagers returned and they started on the movie for the second time, the four of them settled in. Riley and Peter on one side, Rhodey on the recliner on the other. It didn't take long for them to fall asleep on top of each other, exhausted from the long day.

* * *

Natasha still wasn't convinced about anything Stark said, she wanted to sneak up on him again and have another talk with him. This time without Steve interrupting them. Her guilt was her own, she left him behind and went with Steve, and even though she had been on missions with Steve for a long time. Tony had been the first Avenger she had met, and one of the first friends she had made outside of Clint.

Sneaking around when you were dating an ex-assassin on the other hand wasn't very easy and although she gave him the slip at the compound, he found her regardless.

"I know you feel guilty over a lot of things, but shouldn't we sleep first, we still have tomorrow and Steve told me that they set up some kind of weekly dinner thing," James said next to her as she walked through the woods behind the compound. She knew that Stark's house was on the other side.

"I can't sleep, haven't been able to for a while," she said giving him a half smile. "You should know."

"Yeah I know, especially since we only seem to sleep when we're next to each other, but when everyone in the compound is moving about at all hours it's hard to actually sneak around."

"If we told them about whatever we are, would they understand, I mean Steve knows but he only thinks this is a recent thing."

"How about, for now, we just deal with what's happening right now."

She sighed, it was hard to keep a mask up in front of the man. "Fine, I wanted to talk to Tony, we did get interrupted by Steve bursting into the room, even though they needed to talk but still."

James nodded and took her hand. "Well I guess I need to have a talk with him as well, so we can do this together for once."

They reached the back gates of the house, it looked like someone was home because there was movement in the living room, as though the television were on. Someone was walking around before moving towards another room. She saw Tony standing in the kitchen drinking a glass of water his back to the counter.

"I don't think it is prudent for you to be sneaking around back here Agent Romanov," Vision said coming from behind her making her jump as James pulled out a knife. "Hello Sergeant Barnes. Shall I announce your presence to Mr. Stark?"

"I thought you weren't JARVIS?" she said smirking at the android.

"I'm not, but seeing as how I still have him inside of my mind, as well as the fact that I haven't left Tony's side since the war, only whenever I went to visit with Ms. Maximoff, then I still have some of Mr. Stark's trust."

Natasha couldn't help but cringe at the fact that Vision had said what he did. She had lost Tony's trust by helping Steve, and lost him as a friend when she didn't return to his side after everything that had happened.

"Can you please tell him that we would like to speak with him," James said answering for her. He knew her better than most, he was the only person she truly put down her defenses for because they had known one another the longest, though no one else would know that part of their lives.

Vision showed them to the library that sat on the other side of the mansion, away from where Tony was, he was in a way protecting the genius and Natasha felt herself slowly wavering because she had helped cause this.

Tony woke up feeling hot and thirsty, when he looked around he saw that Rhodey had left at some point, and the three left were covered in blankets. Vision must have tucked them in, which made him smile because he knew there were parts of him with JARVIS still inside. He got up and put Riley's head on one of the cushions moving her legs behind Peter who had fallen asleep on the other side of the long couch. Before walking over to the kitchen to get some water, he must have been tired, to fall asleep like that on the couch.

"Sir, Agent Romanov and Sergeant Barnes wish to speak with you," Vision said from behind him making him jump. He panicked for a moment because Riley was in the house and her existence was still a secret. "I've put them in the library."

"Thanks Viz," he said. The android must have known that the location of his kid had to be kept a secret. He patted him on the way out of the kitchen and made his way towards the library on the other end of the house, checking in on the kids on his way.

When he reached the doorway he saw the two people he hadn't expected to show up at his door standing in front of a bookcase looking around.

"To what to I owe this pleasure?" he said sitting down on one of the old leather couches. "Considering I didn't invite you over which means you're here for another reason."

"Guilt, mostly," Natasha said. "I know you and Steve talked but I wished I would have gotten the chance to say more before he burst into the room."

"I actually don't care anymore, someone told me recently that I have to learn to move forward, families fight and that it's time I bring myself to forgive you, because my mother wouldn't want me holding a grudge against people I considered my family."

"That's it, it's been eating inside of her this whole time, and some other person tells you to move on and you listen?" Barnes said making Tony shrug his shoulders.

"I trust this person with my life, something I once did with the Avengers, and something I hope that one day I can do again. But that person tells me how it is, they've been putting me in my place for years and I rather listen to them then do something stupid."

"Was it Pepper?" Natasha asked with a smile on her face. "Or was it Rhodes?"

"Neither, it's not someone I've introduced any of you to, and with good reason because they wouldn't appreciate how I have the tendency to ignore their request, but that one request is something I'm going to listen to," he said sinking into the couch. "I'm sick of fighting, I get that Barnes was brainwashed, and that you all feel guilty, but families fight. I'm done trying to keep my feelings bottled up, I'm going to move on. Dinners with the kiddos, meetings, actual talking like I said to Rogers, and maybe one day this will all just be a distant memory."

"I would like to meet this person one day, if they can get the great Tony Stark to actually do something that doesn't involve him ignoring the request," she said walking over to him. "And I am really sorry, for all of it."

"I know, I know… but maybe when we get comfortable with one another again, you can tell me why you showed up with Barnes and not Rogers… because I'm sensing something is going on with the two of you and no one really knows the extent of it all."

"Well if you're going to keep this mysterious person a mystery, then the same goes for whatever James and I have."

"Oh first name basis, this is serious," he smiled at her. "I love a challenge."

"Yeah so do we," Barnes said making Tony laugh.

"Well I'm off to bed, someone said something about a nine A.M. class that apparently I have to oversee tomorrow."

They said their goodbyes, and Tony all of a sudden realized that Riley was right, he felt lighter. Families fight all the time, so he guessed it was time to finally put it all to rest.


	4. Chapter 4 - Small Steps are Better than

_**A/N: I honestly worry if I'm doing okay with this fic, especially since I can't update it regularly. I'm working on drafting some chapters for my Season 5 fic. As well as one-shots for Steve/Tony that I post on AO3**_

* * *

 **Chapter Four – Small Steps are better than none taken**

Steve is a light sleeper, the smallest of movements would wake him up. He blamed the seventy-year nap for this because he was always afraid of sleeping for too long. The serum made sure that he needed as little sleep as possible but it didn't stop him from being afraid of closing his eyes. During the time he had been on the run from the government and the Accords he barely slept, the fear of being caught rained down on his thoughts. There was also the occasional nightmare that had plagued him since his fight with Tony. He hadn't thought about it when they were fighting because he wanted to stop Bucky from being hurt but in the end after he had left the other man in a Siberian facility it plagued him. The thought that he could have killed Tony, and he had been worried for days until the man had shown up on television.

The letter the stupid letter, was more for him to ease his guilt than for Tony himself, he knew it was a shoddy attempt at an apology, and they never used the phone until it had been absolutely necessary but in the end the guilt had stayed with him. He watched the news constantly looking for signs of Iron Man, or of Tony. The guilt kept building as he realized that the Avengers had followed him, Thor had his own battle in New York, but that was the extent of what he had seen of the man until they were battling Thanos and his armies, him and Banner had been in another realm while Steve had fought in the Civil War as it had been dubbed.

No one had stayed with Tony, except for Spiderman, and Colonel Rhodes who had been battling his own injuries from the fight at the airport. Steve's beard itched, but he didn't shave, he was no longer the clean cut Captain America, time had changed that. He knew he had an early morning class but sleep alluded him that night. How can someone possibly lead a group of kids into the Avengers, or SHIELD if he still didn't have his confidence back. When he finally fell asleep it was close to two in the morning and he had just passed out from exhaustion.

The bed jostled as someone dropped themselves on it making Steve jump and grab the person thinking they were trying to attack him only to find his face full of hair and a metal arm prying him away. Natasha sat at the edge of the bed he hair tied back as she drank a bottle of water.

"You know if you don't wake up for your early morning run people worry," she said smiling. "Tough night?"

"Just the same old dreams, sorry I didn't meet up with you guys," he said looking at the clock as it signaled the time. It was six in the morning he had only gotten four hours of sleep.

"It rare for you not to be up at the crack of dawn annoying us into keeping up with you," Bucky said next to him. "Although if you were going to attack me just because I jumped on the bed I would have tried something different."

"I told you not to jump on the bed but you wouldn't listen to me," Natasha said smiling at him. "Anyway, we were talk to Stark last night."

Steve's eyes jumped between the two of them trying to figure out what they could have talked with Tony. He couldn't formulate the words that were running through his head, he thought they had resolved everything with their earlier talk but he thought about his conversation afterwards with Bucky and Sam and he knew there was so much more they needed to talk about.

"Steve, he's moving forward with all of this, and as much as I love you guys, I think he's right. Families fight, that's what he said, and we're all a big albeit slightly dysfunctional family, and so we fought now it's time to move forward," she said looking at him with sadness in her eyes.

"I just want to go back and change everything that happened, but it's not possible," he said trying to keep himself from looking down. He could face a million bullies and try to save everyone but when it came to his feelings and his mistakes he felt as if he were incompetent.

"Stevie, you can't bring the past back, but you can try and change the present," Bucky said to him. "Talk to him, actually talk to the man because next time you try to drag everyone into a war for the sake of saving someone I'm going to kick you in the balls as Nat watches."

"That was very graphic," he said smiling at his friend. "Come on let's get ready to teach the future of our world."

"I still can't believe you volunteered us for this," Bucky said as he jumped off the bed. "I never saw myself as a teacher."

"You are more of a people person than most so it could be good for you," Natasha said smiling as she rubbed Bucky's back.

Steve knew it was sweet for the two of them, he knew they've had something for one another for a while but he didn't pry, it was time to let Bucky live his life and for Steve to stop interfering. It was also time for him to forgive himself and maybe try to get his life in order especially when it came to Tony.

"When you get the chance you should probably also thank whoever it was that convinced Stark to move forward instead of dwelling on the past," Bucky said as he was walking out of the room.

Steve looked at him confused for a moment. "What do you mean?"

"He means that there's someone in Tony's life that's making him see clearly, and pushing him to realize that families no matter how much they fight, will always come back together," Natasha said smiling. "That's how we found out that he was truly forgiving us, there's someone in his life that's changing him or maybe they had always been there and we never noticed."

For some reason the thought that someone else was around Tony to the point that they could truly change him, made Steve feel like he had lost something. What could he lose with a person he had fought with?

"Don't over think it," Bucky said. "For all you know it could be one of those kids that's always hanging around him. He has somehow created a family for himself, even Vision protects him now, so in the end they're all changing him."

"That could be it," Steve said thinking about his own fractured relationship with the genius inventor. "I have misjudged him a lot over the years, maybe it's time that I start over with him."

"That would be a good idea," Bucky said before he dragged Natasha out of the room.

Starting over, was a great idea, he just needed to figure out how to start.

* * *

Waking up before seven in the morning was something Lucas wasn't very fond of, mainly because his friends were night owls and usually worked until late at night. He was usually up with them helping with whatever project they needed to do. The three of them hadn't foreseen the fact that their first class was at nine in the morning, and breakfast would only be served to the students from seven until eight. The first class was a training course, and it was a mandatory class, but they also wanted to make sure that none of them puked their guts out.

"Why is the sun so bright," Farkle said as they walked towards the dining hall.

"Shhh, don't talk too much," Isadora said to them.

Lucas couldn't help but laugh, he didn't care if he was tired because of who was teaching their first class. The excitement could keep him going until he passed out. He steered his friends towards the doors and pushed them towards the line for food. The two geniuses groaning as they moved along. As they set their trays down on their table he went off to look for some drinks only to bump into someone who easily towered over him. When Lucas looked up he came face to face with his hero not realizing that he was now covered in hot coffee. It took Lucas a whole minute to react to the burning sensation on his chest.

"Sorry kid, are you alright?" Captain America asked and all Lucas could do was nod at the man. "Make sure you get cleaned up before class, and check for burns."

Lucas still couldn't say a word and he started to realize that this was not how he imagined their first meeting to go. Even at Aunt Peggy's funeral he hadn't really had the chance to talk to the man, but now as he faced him he realized that he was losing momentum.

"Lucas are you alright?" a familiar voice said as his cousin walked up to him. "Steve I'm so sorry about this, Lucas is normally very well he's talkative but you're his idol so he's probably just star struck."

"Thanks a lot Sharon," Lucas mumbled as he turned around and grabbed a napkin from his plate.

"Ah he speaks," she said smiling. "Anyway, Steve this is my cousin Lucas Friar, Lucas meet Steve Rogers."

"It's nice to meet you sir," he said sticking his hand out. "I've heard so much about you from Sharon and Aunt Peggy, so this is… well it's really a pleasure to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too Lucas," Captain America said, making Lucas want to jump for joy because his idol said his name. "I have to go prep the training area so I'll see you both later."

As soon as the man walked away Sharon slapped Lucas on the shoulder. "Very smooth there cuz, you meet your idol and you freeze up."

"Yeah well no one can be entirely perfect," he said smiling. "But it's something great."

"Yeah except the people in our family don't get star struck, we are people of action, and Aunt Peggy would be mortified if she saw what you did."

"No she won't, she told me about the day he became Captain America, the woman touched his chest the minute he came out of that machine."

The two of them started laughing the moment the words were out of his mouth, when it came to Captain America there were no bigger fans than the Carter Family, and Lucas would never count Stark in that, no matter what people said.

He went back to the table with drinks for him and his friends as he saw the two of them sleeping on their trays. They hadn't seen what had happened but he knew that the moment they heard about it they would laugh in his face because he was supposed to be a cool and calm one and the first thing he did was freeze up and stutter.

"Wake up sleepyheads," he said shaking them awake. "I brought coffee, and we have to eat and get changed for class, and I know how much you two like to learn."

Farkle grumbled as he lifted his head. "It's not learning, we're training, as in sports and I'm terrible at sports."

Isadora only took the cup of coffee before inhaling it in one go, if there was anything that his friends needed in the morning was a decent size cup of coffee and a math book to argue over.

It took another two cups of coffee before they were fully awake and then they all dug into their food before heading back to their dorms to change into their training clothes. All of their school outfits were issued by SHEILD, outside of school hours they were allowed to wear their regular clothes but once on campus they needed to be in their gear. When Isadora and Farkle heard about it they tested the material to see why only to find out that there was a thin layer of bullet proof material, and the fabric was fireproof. They liked that the gear was meant to protect them, but in the end their training clothes weren't as sturdy.

On the way to the training hall Lucas saw the girl again, she was surrounded by three guys and smiling at them. One of them looked like he wanted to run the other way, while the other three were dragging him along laughing. Lucas couldn't understand why he couldn't talk to this girl and apologize, he couldn't understand why it got under his skin that he had messed up and couldn't fix it at all. Since they were all going to the same place maybe he'd get the chance to fix their relationship, or at least get a second chance at a first meeting.

* * *

Early mornings weren't her thing, but since her father had to be up this early she wasn't going to complain, so after two very strong cups of coffee, and some mini cinnamon rolls that Vision made for them Riley and Peter were off to school. They make their way through the woods, Riley on her bike and Peter using his web shooters, every once and in a while he made his way back to Riley to keep her company.

"This is so cool," he said although they were dressed in their normal SHIELD issued gear, both of them were trying really hard not to tear them.

She knew her father had designed the suits, he wanted nothing but the best protection for his kid, as well as the kids at the school. The fabric was breathable, and light. He had told her that it was what he had used on the Avengers when they were a team. So much work he had put into his team for it to blow up in his face later on, but Riley knew that trying to piece back together his Avenger's family would make him happy. She didn't like the hurt looks on her father's face, because it hurt her as well.

"Peter be careful not to hit a tree," she yelled out after him.

"Oh please, I can do this in my…" he stopped as he actually hit a tree and a bird's nest landed on his head.

"Told you, they're a lot closer back here," she said trying not to laugh but failing.

"Gross, I have bird feathers in my mouth, this would never have happened if I was allowed to wear my Spiderman suit to school."

"Yeah well dad said no one is allowed to know you're Spiderman yet," she said as they made it pass the small hill behind the school. She slid to a stop in front of the bike rack as Peter pulled feathers out of his hair.

Riley pulled out a bottle of mouthwash she carried around, normally for after lunch because braces when she was in middle school made her a stickler for fresh breath and not having food stuck to her teeth. She handed it to him and chained up her bike.

"Thanks," he said as he handed the bottle back to her.

"Keep it, I'll get another one, plus I don't want you to give me the bird flu from you rinsing your mouth out with my mouthwash."

Before Peter could make a remark Zay and Ned stepped out of a car driven by her Uncle Rhodey, she smiled and waved at the man.

"Be good in school kids, I'll see you guys later," he said before driving off.

"He has to be in Washington today," Zay said as he pulled the collar of his uniform. "He also came home last night laughing about someone freaking out about his daughter being alone in a room with boys."

Riley could feel her face burn, "We were just in the workshop, geez my dad is going to freak out about everything."

"Maybe it has something to do with the fact that all of your closest friends are guys," Ned said laughing with Zay.

"Maybe you should find some girls to be friends with to keep him from freaking out?" Zay said once the laughter died down.

Riley sighed knowing that maybe she needed that but since no one knew who she really was, it was difficult to make friends and bring them over.

"Come on boys' time for training," she said as they started walking towards the building. Ned groaned and she knew it was because he was the least athletic one. Zay ran track when he was at their prep school, she had boxing training with Happy over the years, and well Peter was Spiderman.

"Don't worry you'll be fine," Peter said as the dragged Ned along. "Nothing will go wrong, and maybe you could build up enough muscle that you could become like the Hulk."

"Ned Hulk is brave," Zay said in a Hulk voice.

"Ned Hulk is strong," Peter joined.

All Riley could do was smiled and drag Ned along towards the building. The boys started laughing after a while which only made her laugh as well.

The training hall was huge, so when they walked in the group separated and Riley went into the girl's locker room to change into her training gear. The class was made up of guys and girls but in the end there were more guys in the class, so the girl's locker room had only fourteen girls changing. She knew her father wanted to keep it even but it was rare for parents to be alright with their daughters joining a super-secret organization.

Riley's locker was next to another brunette girl's who looked like she needed another cup of caffeine to function.

"Hi," Riley said as she stored her stuff inside and began changing.

"Don't tell me you're a morning person?" the girl said squinting before she put on a pair of glasses.

"Not really but my dad buys really good coffee so I had several cups this morning," Riley said smiling.

"I need more coffee."

Riley pulled out a bag of chocolate covered coffee beans she got from Vision as a thank you not too long ago. He had wanted advice on where to travel and she told him where he should go, especially since Riley knew that it involved a certain girl. He maybe an android but he was learning about all kinds of things including human relationships.

"Here," she said handing the girl a handful of beans. "Their chocolate covered coffee beans, and the chocolate is laced with coffee. I got it from a friend who had traveled to Europe, and I don't mind sharing."

The girl looked at her for a moment before taking the candy and shoving it in her mouth, chewing blissfully as the chocolate melted in her mouth. Riley ate some before storing the rest of the bag.

"You're a goddess I swear," the girl said before sticking out her hand. "I'm Isadora Smackle."

"Riley Matthews," she answered with a smile. Saying the last name hurt sometimes but she was happy to have made a friend so easily. "So what brings you to this school?"

"I have these two guy friends, one is super athletic, and the other is a science nerd, I'm more of a computer nerd, but it doesn't matter because we're going to rule the world. How about you?"

"Well, I blew up a science lab, and one of my dad's friends recommended this place, plus my guy friends are here too," she smiled.

"You blew up a science lab," Isadora said in awe. "Wait I heard about this but I thought it was a myth. It makes sense now, and we're both surrounded by guys, so I guess this means we were meant to be friends to balance that part of our lives out."

Riley couldn't help but laugh, she had become a legend in other schools for trying to figure out a formula, but the story everyone else said had turned out differently, to everyone else they thought that she did it to get out of class. Which was a lie, especially since she had finished all of her school work up until senior year when she was in middle school. Her father wanted her to have a normal life so he didn't pressure her to go to college early, even though she did have a Bachelor's already through correspondence, well actually it's three Bachelor's degrees, but what could you expect from Tony Stark's kid.

Their teammate assignments were on the door by the entrance to the training hall, and the two girls saw that they had been paired together. They had laughed it off as they walked into the hall and lined up. That's where she saw him, the kid that she had almost hit with her bike, she didn't know how to feel about him since he had yelled at her on the first day, but instead she decided to take her own advice and let go. If her father had to do it she would do it as well.

"Good morning," a loud booming voice said. Riley turned to see who her instructors would be, her father had said that the class would be led by Captain America and some of the Avengers.

It was a way for the team to bond with the new students. Now she saw Agent 13, Sharon Carter, standing next to Sam Wilson, the Falcon. Steve Rogers at the center, with Natasha Romanov also known as Black Widow and James Barnes, The Winter Soldier on his other side. The metal arm on the Barnes fascinated her, mainly because her father had designed it as a peace offering, she remembered him agonizing over it for months, mainly because this was also the man who had killed her grandmother. Suddenly forgiveness had become her mantra, he hadn't known who he was, it was Hydra that had made him do it.

"As you know, this class is set up to test your physical capabilities, but also to increase your stamina," Rogers said as Riley attempted to reconcile the fact that her two worlds were colliding in front of her without anyone but Peter, Zay and Ned knowing.

"You have all been paired off, and each pair has been assigned to a team, one team is going to be led by Natasha Romanov along with James Barnes, the other with Sharon Carter and Sam Wilson. Your team assignments were listen with the numbers one or two on the roster that was inside of the locker rooms. Team one will go with Romanov and Barnes, Team two will go with Carter and Wilson."

Riley felt like her heart had stopped for a moment before Isadora was pulling her towards team one. She was lucky because her friends were all standing there waiting for her, but the worried look on their faces meant that they understood her hesitation. She now had to learn to work with the man who had killed her grandparents, and although she wanted to exercise forgiveness she was also afraid that the two assassins would be able to uncover who she really was. Peter squeezed her shoulder as they walked forward. It was his way of saying that everything was going to be fine, of course it was she had Spiderman on her team, and friends who would do anything for her.

"Alright for the next few minutes get to know your team, they're vital into how you survive the training, they will become your family, your leaders are like your parents," Rogers continued.

Everyone nodded as the teams were lead to different sides of the training hall, they had been given the time to talk to one another. Riley jumped when someone touched her shoulder only to turn around and come face to face with the boy from the first day of school. Isadora stood at his side and a blonde boy on the other.

"Hi I'm Lucas," he said smiling slightly at her. "I wanted to say sorry for what happened yesterday, I didn't know you were a student here."

Riley sighed for a moment before looking up at him. "I'm Riley, and sorry for almost running you over with my bike."

The two of them laughed for a moment, their friends looking at them confused before they went on to explain what happened. Riley learned that the other boy was the one that Isadora was talking about, a science nerd.

"I'm Farkle," he said introducing himself. "Isadora says you're the legend that blew up the science lab at that prep school."

"Guilty," she said smiling.

The group shook hands with one another as they all introduced themselves, no one but Riley, Ned and Zay knew that Peter was Spiderman, his identity was a secret as much as Riley's was. Once they were done with introductions the group started running laps, Riley started feeling lighter for a moment. The Winter Soldier wasn't the same person who had killed her grandparents, she needed to let go of that part of her father's misery. He was her instructor, and a part of the family she was trying to piece back together for her father.

Family that needed to take small steps in order to become whole once again.

* * *

It was almost one in the afternoon when Tony realized he hadn't eaten anything except cinnamon rolls, Vision was working along with him on the paperwork for various missions that needed to happen in the upcoming weeks. The android was good at keeping up with the sheer amount of things that Tony could easily miss, especially since he hated paperwork. But Vision was also helping him keep the secret of his daughter's identity while also keeping a close watch on Riley. Every once and a while he would leave and check up on the training session that had started early in the day. They were training the kids on everything from boosting stamina to being spies, he knew it was strange but for some reason it felt like home to be surrounded by all of this cloak and dagger stuff.

The students had regular classes in the afternoon, some were allowed to go to the previous schools if they didn't want to take the classes on campus. Peter was alternating between the two along with Ned, with special permission. Zay and Riley were both going to be full time students, he had wanted his daughter to have a normal childhood and somehow got her invited into a spy school.

"How about some lunch?" Vision asked looking at him closely. "It seems as though your levels are dropping."

"Let's go eat with the kids," he said smiling. He knew he couldn't really have lunch with his daughter but being close to her would be alright. She was his anchor through all of the madness in his life so of course he needed to lean on her even now. When they reached the dining hall he looked around and saw the students all talking about their first day, it was nice to see something so normal after a morning of paperwork. He grabbed a cup of coffee and walked around for a moment listening to them and introducing himself to the tables of students.

Spotting Riley at a far table with Ned, Zay and Peter he made his way over to say hello like he had to all of the other tables. He didn't want it to seem suspicious if he had only gone to see her and no one else. When he walked over he smiled at the group as they stopped talking.

"How was your first training session?" he asked them, it felt normal to ask.

"Good Mr. Stark," Peter answered smiling while Ned groaned into the table.

"That's good," he said smiling at Riley who smiled back. As he introduced himself to the table one of the guys looked at him and glared which only made him skeptical about being so close to the teenagers he already knew. "Well I'll let you all get back to your lunch, it was nice meeting you."

He walked off wondering why the green eyed teen glared at him, and he knew he would have to ask Riley about it later. He made his way to a table as Vision set down a tray for him, he sat down and sighed.

"You should probably eat that," Steve said as he sat down in front of Tony.

"Well we wouldn't want to disappoint Vision since he wanted to make sure I ate something," he said smiling.

"Listen Tony," Steve said looking directly at him. Tony couldn't figure out where to look, the man's eyes were as blue as the ocean and sometimes he swore that he could drown from looking at them. They mesmerized him in some way but he couldn't figure out why. "I talked to Nat and Buck and they told me about the conversation you had last night. I know it's hard to let go, but… well thanks for trying."

Tony shook his head to bring himself back to the present. "Don't worry about it, I know I had to learn to let go, and it took one very headstrong person to force me into it, even though I was being stubborn about it."

"Hearing you say that reminds me of Peggy in a way," Steve said smiling. "I would like to meet this person one day."

At the mention of Peggy, Tony couldn't help but think just how much of his Aunt and Godmother had transferred over to how he had raised his daughter. Pepper was the same in some ways, but no one could hold a candle to his godmother. He realized that he had never told Steve about the connection, no one outside of Fury, and his parents knew about it either. It was something he pushed back when the dementia had started taking over the woman's life, and it also reminded him of the first time she had met Riley. Peggy had been so proud of him, but that memory had faded like so many others, and after a while he couldn't bear to visit her, especially when a certain super soldier returned.

"You will one day," was all he said as he pushed back the memories of the woman who had helped raise him on stories of Captain America, when his own father ignored him. "So how was the first day?"

"Interesting, some of these kids can fight, other's need a little help, but I'm guessing their more interested in the tech and science part of this academy. Buck and Nat have an interesting group on their hands," Steve said pointing out the group in the back. "Those kids over there are in their group."

The moment Tony saw that it was Riley's table he feared something would happen, it was the Winter Soldier, the image of his hand over Tony's mother's throat. All of a sudden he felt the walls closing in on him, he couldn't breathe, there was an ache in his chest as if the shrapnel was clawing its way to his heart. He couldn't breathe… he couldn't breathe….

He heard Steve saying his name but all Tony could do was move out of the dining hall and all but crawl down the corridor, he needed air. He passed out as he made it down towards the double doors leading to the lawn.


	5. Chapter 5 - Sometimes all you need

A/N: Sorry for the wait, but do you have any idea how hard it is to write an abstract for a Master's Thesis? Because I sure as hell didn't until last month when I was in tears over the fact that I couldn't get it right.  
I finally got it right and my thesis project has been approved, and so today I got the chance to finish this chapter. Hopefully now that my thesis paper is underway it means I have more time to write this.

Also for those of you who read my GMW Fanfics, the Season 5 fic will start on October 6, which is this Friday!

* * *

Chapter Five – Sometimes all you need is a swift kick in the head

* * *

Riley saw the moment her father rushed out of the room, her heart was pounding in her chest because she knew that he was having a panic attack. He hadn't had one since a few months after Siberia, she had worked with him to get them under control because he hadn't wanted to seek advice on it. So, she worked with Vision on figuring out ways to keep him from having a panic attack but also she worried about him having a heart attack from the stress. She loved her father more than anything and she worried about him. She was about to stand up but she felt Peter place his hand over hers, it was his way of saying that she couldn't.

It was at that moment that she hated the fact that no one knew she was Tony Starks daughter, she was ready to jump out of her skin because she couldn't move. She couldn't do anything and it sucked.

"Geez, what's up with Stark," Lucas said from across the table. "Did he have to make lunch so dramatic?"

"What's up with you man, what do you have against Tony Stark?" Zay said and Riley knew that it had to do with the fact that Zay had grown up with Uncle Tony in the same way she had Uncle Rhodey. They were family and family stuck together no matter what.

"He's an arrogant, self-serving, egomaniac who would rather think of himself than his own company, or his own team," Lucas said. "Why do you like him?"

"Considering he's my father's best friend, my godfather, and my surrogate uncle, yes I freaking like him, and you shouldn't judge someone based on what you read in the news," Zay said standing up. Slamming his hands down on the table he got close to Lucas and smirked. "Let me guess you're a fan of the great Captain America, well your hero isn't all that great either, but I can look pass everything he's done and work to understand him better instead of being bitter towards the man."

Riley knew that Zay had said those things for her own benefit but Riley couldn't believe that she was hearing something from Lucas who knew nothing about her father. She knew her father had kept up the appearance of being that billionaire playboy, but in reality, he had been so busy raising her, or making sure that no one knew she existed that in the end that image had faded, and he let it fade even though he was seen leaving a party with one or two people with him, but after Afghanistan he usually just went home to create things. Life with her had been different than what the public wrote about, it was an act he put on for the benefit of everyone else.

"Can you believe him," Lucas said looking over at her and she couldn't hold back a sneer as she stood up and walked off.

"Don't say anything bad about Tony or Iron Man," Peter said as he walked off.

"What's it to you people," Lucas called after them.

"When you learn the truth, it might hurt more than you believe," Ned said before joining his friends.

Once the four of them were out of the cafeteria Riley ran as fast as she could to where she knew her father would go. His workshop inside of NAF wasn't as big as the one at home, he made sure that all of his own inventions, including Iron Man stayed at the house with the exception of the one he kept near him but any tech he made for the Avengers stayed on site.

Rounding the corner inside of the main building, she rushed down the stairs towards the workshop. Since Peter was with her most people would think that she was with Spiderman but they were actually with her. She saw her father slumped over his work bench, hyperventilating while clutching his chest.

"Guys, give me a minute and I'll let you in," she said and waited until they all agreed. "Fri, blackout the windows I don't want anyone to see."

"Sure thing Riley," FRIDAY said before she closed the door and walked towards her father.

"Daddy," she said feeling small because she couldn't help him. She walked towards him slowly making sure that she didn't make any sudden movements. Once she was close to him she slowly placed her hand on his shoulder and gave him a squeeze. It took a few minutes before his breathing evened out.

"Hey," he said and she could tell that his voice was hoarse from trying to breathe.

"How are you feeling?" she really wanted to know what triggered the attack but she didn't ask.

"Sorry about that," he said before pulling her into a hug.

"Dad you were having lunch with Captain Rogers, I hoped it would be easier if you were around him, that's why I offered the ultimatum but if it's not going to be alright maybe we can hold off on telling the world."

"No, it wasn't that, Steve was fine it's just that… Riley your training team is headed up by Barnes isn't it."

"Yeah, I was placed there this morning," she said wondering where he was going with this.

"The Winter Soldier… his other personality, although it's gone, he still has to live with what he's done, but it's also the fact that he killed your grandparents."

Riley's mind started working overtime thinking about the ramifications of knowing that her grandparents hadn't died in an accident but by the hands of James Barnes. And now he was training her.

"The panic attack was because of me," she said shocked at thinking that he was afraid.

"Riley, I don't want you hurt, I was afraid that he was going to take you away from me and that's the last thing I want to happen."

"Don't worry too much, if he tries anything I'm pretty sure that a compound full of people will stop him. I think what you're more afraid of is that I'm too weak to handle myself but dad, seriously I trained with you and Happy, I have a bunch of little projects that I'm pretty sure could kill someone because I'm not a hundred percent sure if they're going to work, plus I'm your kid… and I doubt anyone would want to face mom's wrath if I got hurt in any way."

"I wouldn't want to face your mother if anything happened to you, she's scary when she's angry, hell it's one of the reasons why she's so good at running the company."

She nodded at him and smiled before she pulled him into a hug. "Feel better?"

"Yes, now is the rest of the gang waiting outside or did they create a distraction."

"They're outside."

He smiled at her before standing, she noticed that he was a little shaky on his feet for a moment. He walked over to the door and opened it as three teenage boys fell to the floor.

"Really smooth guys," he said smiling at the boys.

Riley was glad to have friends like them, but now she had another problem and that was that one of her teammates didn't like her father and the reasons why had mostly to do with the fact that they were obsessed with Captain America.

"Off to class with the bunch of you," her father said smiling before hugging her and sending her off with the rest of her friends.

Peter put one arm around her shoulders, and the other around Ned's, so she put hers around Zay and the four of them walked off. With friends like them she didn't need anyone else, especially someone who would bad mouth her father. Although Isadora is okay in her book and she wouldn't mind getting to know the other girl.

"I wonder if I could come to this school full time," Peter said out loud making Riley laugh.

"What you don't want to go back to your other world?" she said smiling at him.

"Well not really, I love it there and I'm happy being Spiderman and all, but I guess the back and forth would get a little bothersome after a while."

"Don't pick, plus your Aunt would probably kill my dad for keeping you away so much, especially since I'm pretty sure she knows that you're Spiderman," she said smiling at him. "Now off you go, you and Ned both have class over there this afternoon."

She pushed him off, her father had made sure that the two would be taken into the city by Happy on most days. They also have a bus for the few students who traveled back and forth, which was only about ten including Peter and Ned. They were in a good school and her father was very much aware of that even though he found it hilarious when Peter needed to do homework instead of being a superhero.

"I swear I'm never sure if you two are flirting, or acting like you're flirting," Zay said as they walked off towards their next class. It was a history class taught by her public persona's father, though at the school no one knew that they only thought that they had the same last name.

"No, we're not flirting… I don't even know how to flirt," she said trying to divert any attention Zay was trying to put on her relationship with Peter. "I'm pretty sure it's only a platonic friendship Zay not romantic."

"Yeah keep telling yourself that," he said as they walked into the room and came face to face Mr. Matthews.

"On time," Mr. Matthews said. "Not bad, especially since last time I taught a class with you two in it you were ten minutes late consistently."

"Well we're trying to be good," she said smiling.

"Yeah especially since the last time you were trying to be good you blew up the science lab," Zay said making her push him to the side.

* * *

Lucas couldn't believe it, why had the four of them reacted that way, just because he didn't like Tony Stark. It wasn't until Zay said that Stark was his godfather which meant that someone was close enough to Stark to name him the godfather to his kid. They had gotten along so well, and now he felt stupid because of what he said.

"You know Riley is a good person, and from what I saw of Zay, Peter and Ned they're all good at what they do but because you can't let go of this weird hatred you have for Stark you might lose a part of the team we need to be a part of," Isadora said rolling her eyes at him.

Farkle looked up at them. "Didn't your Aunt Peggy tell you to stop hating on the man?"

"Yes, but then that whole civil war happened."

"Lucas, whatever happened at that airport has nothing to do with us, we don't know what happened, we don't know the reasons behind it but in the end you have done nothing but hate him and now it's going to cost you the team we have to build," Farkle said looking him in the eye.

"I think you need to talk to Sharon and get all of the facts before you keep digging yourself into this hole you want to be buried in," Isadora said before standing up and walking away. Farkle following her giving him an I'm sorry look before walking away. They had afternoon classes, so he wouldn't be able to talk to any of them including Sharon until later.

The thought that he might have messed up a new friendship so quickly was bothering him throughout the day. The afternoon classes were normal courses, history, math, science even a literature class, but he hadn't paid attention in any of them. Especially since the moment he walked into his history class and came face to face with Riley and Zay who both ignored him and continued their conversation. When classes were over for the day he sat outside on the lawn and just thought about everything including his Aunt Peggy.

 _Why had she told me not to judge Stark?_ Was all he wondered but he couldn't find an answer.

"Hello Lucas," someone said from behind him. When Lucas turned around he was faced with his childhood hero, behind him was Sharon looking at him with a look that he knew all too well, she was disappointed in him. "You know I heard that you had a disagreement with your team already."

"Yeah well, it's only the first day who knows what will happen next," he said realizing that he won't be able to be happy and hero worship that man with a pissed off Sharon in the background.

"I had a disagreement with my team once and in the end it cost me more than I could have wished, it cost me a friendship with one of the only people I knew I could trust, all because I had kept a secret from them. I acted in a way that wasn't befitting of Captain America, and now I have to work twice as hard to repair that friendship."

"So, what is the lesson here sir," Lucas said looking to the man he had admired all of his life.

"The lesson is that maybe you should let go of whatever anger you have that's causing this rift and learn grow from these new friendship, who knows you might learn something," he said standing up. "Also know that sometimes if you can't let go, it'll cost you your team and maybe even your life."

When Captain Rogers walked away Sharon sat down next to him and smiled for a moment. They didn't say a word to one another for a few minutes before she spoke up.

"Do you know the reason why Aunt Peggy wanted you to let go of the hatred you have over Stark?" When Lucas shook his head, she continued. "Well not many people know this, because it's not public knowledge, it's not even in the SHIELD files, but Aunt Peggy was Tony Stark's godmother."

Lucas's head shot up the moment Sharon had said those words he didn't know what to do with that information.

"The only reason I knew is because well, she left me a long letter, I found it after she had died, after I had helped three fugitives, after everything that had happened during the whole civil war fiasco. The letter wasn't for me though, it was for the one person none of us thought to invite to her funeral, the one person she had helped raise and when she got sick he had been the one to make sure that she got the best care even if he wasn't around."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I thought you might want to know, I read the letter before I gave it to him which was an invasion of privacy, but since she had left an entire trunk of things for Stark I was curious about it all. I betrayed someone who was supposed to be a part of our family all because of a blind trust for Captain America. Aunt Peggy was loyal to both and she would have probably taken them both by the ear and yelled at them. They were her family, even though she had a whole family in us, but no matter what she loved every one of us in her own way."

"Why would she keep that from us thought?"

"Because Stark asked her to, after the death of his parents," Sharon put her arms around him and hugged him. "You can't be mad at family."

When she left Lucas felt as though he had been given something he would have never known in the first place. It wasn't a mystery to solve, it was the legacy of his life, and the hate he held for someone.

* * *

Tony worked in the NAF workshop for an hour before heading to his office to have his afternoon conference call with Pepper over designs for Stark tech products as well as anything else she wanted to throw at him. It was a good thing that the conversation was happening over a holoscreen because the last time they had done it face to face she had actually thrown something at him for saying something inappropriate during the board meeting.

When he sat down he noticed that he was ten minutes early, so he checked his emails to clear them out. There were request from foreign governments for missions, Hydra missions he needed to approve, and request from Fury for helicarrier upgrades. Even though Fury was no longer the director of all of SHIELD, he was in charge of any missions that Tony didn't want to handle himself, of course he used the helicarrier as well as several agents to run the missions. Hill split her time between the two, but Tony had allowed her to work from the air since he knew how close she was to Fury.

Three emails had been flagged by FRIDAY for him to read and he couldn't help but smile at them, one was from Harley, no doubt it was an angry email because his mother had denied his chance to enter the Academy.

* * *

From: Harley Keener

To: Tony Stark

Subject: What the Hell Man, I thought we were connected

Hey Stark,

Seriously, why did you listen to my mother, you know I wanted to be there. But when I asked her she was angry and sent me to my room for being an evil little shit and trying to plot on running away without her permission.

We're connected you and me, remember, so why didn't you stick up for me with her. So what if I got a D or two, it's not my fault… not entirely… okay maybe it was but what does it matter if I get a D in gym class.

I'll get you so help me I will.

Harley

Tony couldn't help but roll his eyes, Harley's mother didn't want him going to the Academy because he had gotten two D's on his last report card. Tony understood and told her that if Harley raised his grades he would rethink the kid's entry into the Academy. It had been the most adult conversation he had ever had, and he knew that she was doing it out of love for her son.

* * *

From: Tony Stark tonystark

To: Harley Keener potatogunmk2

Subject: re: What the Hell Man, I thought we were connected

Harley… Harley, Harley, Harley

If you want to survive at the Academy you need a B+ average in Gym, or else you won't survive the training. Trust me I saw the kids after a morning of training with Captain America, and four other agents, you can't survive that if you can't keep up.

If we were connected you would have known that you needed to keep your grades up, you promised me that you would show up with a spotless report card. But in the end, you didn't keep up your end of the bargain. What should I do with a sixteen-year-old who won't take proper orders… not even from your own mother.

It was her decision not mine, so go fight with her over this. You need parental permission to join the Academy, REMEMBER or were you hoping that I would ignore that part just for you?

Try again squirt

Tony

He knew that Harley would throw a hissy fit from the email alone, which he was waiting for especially since the kid had wanted to get into the academy as much as anyone else especially when he had floated the idea to him. His mother had heard and thought it would be a good idea but once he had received his grades from the last semester the woman had been pissed and she had a right to be. So Tony said that if Harley would raise his grades by the beginning of next year they would rethink his entry, but they weren't tell Harley this because he would only raise his grade to go to New York.

The next email was from Mama and Junior Barton's both of which he had smiled at since the kids had taken a liking to him especially after Barton Senior had gone and joined Team Cap during the Accords and all but abandoned his family, and blamed Tony for it as well.

Laura had sent the email along with a picture of the kids all together on vacation over the summer to one of Tony's private islands. Considering Barton wasn't in the photo it meant that he had taken it not knowing that Laura would send it to Tony. He couldn't help but smile at the group.

* * *

From: Laura Barton

To: Tony Stark

Subject: Thank you

Hello from the Bartons,

Thank you, Tony, for letting us use your island getaway for some family bonding before the beginning of the school year. The kids loved it, and I hope you like the picture even though Clint refused to get in it the moment I said I was going to send it to you. He's still being a stubborn ass, even though I'm pretty sure he's forgiven you for well everything. Sadly I told him that I haven't forgiven him, but that's what marriage counseling is for.

Coop wants to join the Academy but I told him to wait until his sixteenth birthday so that I could have him for a few more years. So now he's training everyday he even joined the soccer team to build his stamina. I'll send you a video of his first game of the year.

Lila, well she wants a unicorn and for you to have it sent to her, I don't know how I feel about that and please don't spoil her and build one. She also wants you to visit more often because you haven't come back since Clint came home and she's not happy about that.

I know you told me in confidence about… well you know and I'm glad you did because it explains a lot but maybe you should tell the team. I want them to forgive you fully about everything that has happened. Although I do want to kick my husband's ass, especially now that he keeps talking about going back to teach at the Academy.

I guess he just misses everyone, who knows, but I don't want him leaving his family so I've refused several times already.

Stay healthy Tony, give my love to everyone there.

Laura

He couldn't help but smile, after the whole Accords fiasco he had made sure that the Barton's would be safe even without Clint there. They had gone on the run forgetting that they had a family and Tony couldn't bring himself to forgive Clint for leaving his family, because Tony himself couldn't leave Riley like that. No matter what they said about him and the Accords he knew that they couldn't run around blindly acting the way they did, he made sure Ross wasn't involved anymore but it was their fault for not stopping long enough to actually talk.

He sighed giving up with the argument inside of his own head. What's done is done and it doesn't matter anymore. The Accords now protected the Barton's, they protected Riley, and Zay, who were all kids of superheroes, and that's all that mattered to him.

* * *

From: Tony Stark

To: Laura Barton

Subject: re: Thank you

Hey Laura,

Tell the kids I miss them too, and maybe they can visit in a few weeks when everything is settled, or maybe for Christmas? My house is huge and can fit all of you and a small army, plus I need help decorating this year.

I'm glad you all had fun on the island, I rarely use it so I didn't mind letting you guys go. Tell Birdbrain to get his head out of his ass. If he wants to uproot you guys for something that isn't about taking care of you then go ahead and kick him right where it hurts. If you decide that you do want to move closer to the Academy and let him teach, I have an empty plot of land not too far from here, I know a few good movers who would literally move your farm from where it is and plot it down no question. You wouldn't have to pack a single thing, they would literally take the whole house.

Tell Lila that I can't give her a unicorn… well not yet, but I'll work on it as long as you approve, maybe for Christmas?

Tell me what you want to do and I'll do it, plus I know Clint just misses Nat, and that could be why he's desperate to come here. The ball is in your court.

Love,

Uncle Tony

He closed out the emails as Pepper's face appeared in front of him with a smile on her face, he was afraid of what she had to say when she smiled.

"Hey Pep, I sent you the designs this morning so tell me what you think, come on hit me with it," he said smiling back.

"I think, that the great Tony Stark is being responsible, more responsible than usual and as scary as it is, I'm 90% sure that it has something to do with that kid of ours," she said smiling. The room was monitored by FRIDAY so he wasn't scared about talking about Riley.

"Yeah well she's a good influence, we should have a family dinner this weekend, or a barbeque with Happy, Rhodey and Zay."

"About Rhodey," she said and he could tell she was blushing because her freckles came out more when she blushed. "Um… we're kind of… well he asked me out and I said yes."

"My two best friends are dating without me knowing? I'm wounded Pep… Wounded."

"Not my fault he was supposed to tell you last night but he didn't and I yelled at him this morning about it, but anyway is it alright?"

He thought about it for a moment and realized that he didn't really care, "You can date whoever you want Pepper," he smiled. "So, dinner this weekend?"

"Yes, dinner is fine."

The two spent another hour discussing R&D for S.I. and the technical aspects of creating another Stark Expo except using inventions from students from all over the world. It wouldn't happen until the Spring but he wanted to try it out and possibly find more bright young minds to join the SHIELD recruitment program. Once they were finished with that, they quickly went over other things that hadn't been a part of the original email before hanging up.

The day was almost over and he had never been so exhausted in his life.

* * *

Steve had thought about what he had said to Sharon's cousin and realized that maybe he should have a conversation with Tony about his panic attack. Steve hadn't realized at the time that the attack had happened after he had told him about Bucky training the new recruits. He didn't know why it had been triggered by that but he knew that Tony wasn't completely alright with everything, they were getting there but it wasn't 100% yet.

"FRIDAY, where's Tony right now?" he asked as he walked down the corridor.

"The boss is in his office right now finishing up a conference call with Ms. Potts," FRIDAY answered. "Shall I inform him of your inquiry?"

"No, I'll just knock on the door, thanks."

Steve stopped by the cafeteria and grabbed the largest coffee he could, he thought of it as a peace offering, as well as a sandwich because Tony hadn't eaten anything when they were at lunch and although he knew the genius could go hours without eating he wanted to make sure he didn't collapse from hunger. When he reached Tony's office he stood there for a minute remembering how their last conversation went. Maybe they were getting better, he wasn't sure but he was going to keep trying, no more running.

He knocked on the door before opening it to see Tony grimacing at a bunch of paper work on his desk.

"Need help?" he asked smiling.

"Not really, it's mostly done, it's just that I ran out of coffee and I haven't had any in a while, so I'm going through withdrawal right now," Tony said which made Steve smile.

"Well I brought some with me," he said holding out the cup watching at Tony's eyes lit up eyeing the cup with the kind of lust Steve was sure people gave their lovers. "You get the coffee if you also eat this sandwich."

"Yes, just give it here," Tony said inhaling the hot drink without flinching.

Steve put the sandwich down in front of him and sat down. "I thought that we should talk a little."

Tony stilled for a moment before putting the cup down, "I'm not going to talk about the panic attack, it happens… well not recently, the last one happened months ago, but anyway, I have it under control so pick a different topic."

"Okay how about dinner," Steve said without thinking.

"Are you asking me out on a date? I didn't know Captain America swung both ways?"

The moment Tony had said it he could feel his heart pound in his chest, he wasn't sure about his feelings towards the other man but it was something he wanted to explore. Instead he talked quickly to deflect from what was happening.

"No Tony, a team dinner this weekend."

"Oh, well the answer is no, I have a barbeque with Pep and Rhodey."

"Why can't it also be a team thing? We need to recalibrate after being… well after everything that's happened."

He watched at Tony's face went through a few emotions as he thought about it, "What if we invite a few recruits."

"It's Peter, isn't it?"

"Yes, because he's coming over anyway and so are his friends so you can't object to it."

"Fine, the kids will keep it from turning into an all-out fight."

"There will be a fight," Tony smiled at him. "It's the end of summer, I'm getting the water guns out and there's nothing you can do about it."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes, it's tradition."

Steve couldn't help but smile, it felt so normal, almost like it had been before the Accords, before Ultron, when they had all been friends.

"Fine but you're not allowed to put anything weird into the water guns," he said smiling.

Tony grumbled as he started eating the sandwich. "You know I wouldn't mind having dinner, just the two of us one day," Tony said before taking a sip from the coffee cup.

Steve couldn't believe it even as the genius smiled at him, he really couldn't believe it.

"If we use it to talk about getting pass everything that happened I'll be willing to go to dinner with you," he said hoping that the blush on his skin wasn't noticeable.

"I was thinking more along the lines of dating, I realized recently that I haven't been on a date in a while, but whatever floats your boat Cap."

The smirk on Tony's face told him that he was serious, and Steve choked on air trying to get his bearings in control. Tony had asked him on a date because he thought that Steve had asked him on a date. Was this progress? He wondered but wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer.

"Fine, next Friday," Steve said as he got up. "I'm sure I can trust you to pick a place to go to, or should I?"

Tony looked at him shocked as if he hadn't known that it would work which meant that Steve all of a sudden had the upper hand over this arrangement.

"You pick," Tony said. "Now leave so I can finish the rest of this," he said gesturing towards the pile of paperwork.

"See you tomorrow Director," Steve said before walking out of the room and rushing off. He wasn't sure what he had just done, but now he knew he had a date with Tony.


	6. Chapter 6 – Sometimes it's easy to

**A/N: It has come to the point in this story where I no longer have control over these characters, I'll write them but I've lost control and now they live in their own universe. I let them do what they want and pray that they end up happy.**

 **P.S. there's no Lucas in this chapter, or the next mainly because its more about repairing the Avengers right now.**

* * *

 **Chapter Six – Sometimes it's easy to sneak around**

* * *

Tony flirts with everyone, he knows this, he didn't expect to have Captain America the paragon of all that is good to flirt back. The only reason he had used the opening that Steve had given him was because he needed to find a way to get all of the Avengers into one place. Panic attack or no panic attack he needed to sit down with them all and actually have a conversation. The barbeque was out of the question because everyone invited knew about Riley so they were allowed to be father and daughter for a day without worrying about the media. After thinking about it since the conversation with Steve, and promptly blowing up the upgrade to the boot of his suit and having DUM-E use the fire extinguisher on him and not the boot.

"Did you invite the Avengers to our family barbeque?" Pepper asked as she walked in through the door.

"Yes and no, Steve invited himself and the team and I agreed to it, but I have an idea, the barbeque can be on Sunday because it gives you an excuse to force everyone to bed since the next day is a school day, and I'll tell the Avengers to come over on Saturday and we can have our dinner that day."

"You've thought of everything except one little detail," she said raising her eyebrows at him.

"What? What did I forget?"

"Riley."

"She can hide for a day."

"From super soldiers, spies, and powered individuals?"

"Her lab has a lockdown, and the vents are so small that not even Clint could get inside of them so she'll be alright."

"You know sometimes I'm afraid that our daughter takes too much after you."

"Yeah until she starts handing out words of wisdom or asks me for shoes, the shoe thing I'm pretty sure comes from you."

Pepper sighed before sitting down on the couch. his workshop. It was brand new since the last one had been torched when he accidentally set off the repulsor in his glove the week before while doing an upgrade.

"Do you want to talk about the other thing?"

"You mean the fact that you and Rhodey are dating? Let me think… Yes," he said smiling before sitting down next to her. "There was a time where I was sure that we would stay together but now I'm not so sure."

"I wished for it too but in the end I guess I was more afraid you'd die as Iron Man."

"But Rhodey bear is a service man, and he's the Iron Patriot."

"But he's more careful than you are when it comes to a lot of things, and he always remembers the small things, with you some days I was lucky that you remembered to sleep."

"Harsh Pep."

"Let me just tell you the easy part," she said taking a deep breath. "We started dating about two months ago."

"Who made the first move?"

"He did, and he was a complete gentleman about it too."

"I'm happy for the both of you, and if he hurts you in any way tell me, I'll send Riley to kick his ass."

"No, I'll kick his ass, with my million-dollar heels."

"Did I ever get you a pair of million-dollar shoes?"

"If you did I would remember but no you didn't. Although maybe for Christmas?"

"Listen if you and Rhodey get married I'll buy you the shoes and the dress to match, hell I'll walk you down the aisle and give you away."

"Sounds like a plan," she smiled at him before pulling him into a hug. "Are you going to give James the shovel talk today or are you waiting until he starts sweating?"

He thought about it for a moment before he decided. "I'll wait, he still needs to get Riley's permission to date you."

"She's a tough one," she said laughing. They both knew how protective their daughter was, for Tony she worked to make sure he survived. For Pepper she made sure that he did his paperwork, and they had the occasional shopping trip with one another.

"By the way," he said once they stopped laughing. "How did you find out about the team coming to the barbeque?"

"I got an email from FRIDAY, which was just the first because I also received a voicemail from Vision."

"Betrayed by my own creations, I should have known."

"I'm actually Riley's creation Boss," FRIDAY said making Pepper laugh.

"Yeah yeah," he said before leaning into the back of the couch and rubbing his eyes.

"I know it's useless but you should get some sleep," she said to him.

"I should but I need to finish this up before tomorrow, I signed all the paperwork you sent me earlier so you can pick it up from my office of have someone pick it up for you."

"You know you're being very responsible, especially now that you're the Director, if I didn't know better I would have thought that you'd been possessed by something."

"No, just trying to make my kid proud."

Pepper left him alone in the workshop not long after that, leaving him to fix the problem with his boot in peace. He had sent off an email while he worked to Steve that he had to be at the house by six on Saturday, and then sent the same email to all of the other Avengers, including a wayward archer who hated him because he was nice to the guy's kids.

"Time to fix some relationships," he said out loud to himself.

"Whatever you say Boss," FRIDAY answered.

"I didn't forget about your meddling young lady so don't push me," he said threatening the A.I. which shouldn't be weird because it was a normal occurrence but now he didn't know if FRIDAY was working with him or against him. It was Riley's creation but it felt as though his own kid was using the A.I. to manipulate him into a false sense of security. When had his daughter become the parent in the relationship?

Tony sent Steve a message telling him that they should have their date on Saturday, and then promptly sent an invite for the barbeque to the rest of the Avengers for the same day. He had to believe that his daughter was right about families fighting but he also knew that there was going to be an all-out fight that day as well.

"Fri, can you tell Vision to come down here so I can get his help," he said thinking of JARVIS his old friend still lives within Vision but in some ways he's learned that Vision was also becoming a good friend so he didn't mind.

"FRIDAY has told me that you would like to see me," Vision said as he came through the wall making Tony jump and fire off the boot he had been working on for the second time.

"Jesus," he as the far wall exploded. "Doors Viz, learn to use doors please."

"Sorry."

"It's alright, I wanted to see you because I'm planning something and honestly I don't want the other avengers to know I'm planning this, and Steve thinks it's a date but it's actually a team bonding thing," he said only stopping because he needed to breathe. "Anyway, Riley wants me to work on mending these relationships with the team, and honestly no matter how much we all fucked up, we need to once again function as a team even if that means lying to everyone to make sure that they show up for dinner."

"And what is my role in all of this?" Vision said looking at him with wonder. Although for Tony is was still a bit freaky that the guy could look so human and not be human at the same time.

"Well you've been working on your cooking skills, so can you be in charge of food, nothing fancy just something that says home."

"It sounds like a strange concept but I have been working on several recipes with Riley, Isaiah, and Peter so I believe I can try."

"Thanks Viz, for everything."

"No problem Mr. Stark," he smiled for a moment but before Tony could correct him the android left the room.

"I hate it when he calls me Mr. Stark, and now I'm sure he does it on purpose," he said to himself before moving on to fixing the latest disaster.

* * *

Riley had gotten the message from her father, she wasn't allowed upstairs while the Avengers were on the premises and since they weren't sure when the team would arrive, she had locked herself away the night before. She had homework to do and things to build, plus she had to figure out the formula for that nail polish which had been bothering her since she blew up the science lab.

As she worked on the equations for the nail polish, her phone started ringing, she saw Zay's face light up the screen so she put the phone to her ear as she answered.

"Hey Zay," she said as she tweaked the equation, making FRIDAY run the numbers before the screen turned red making her grunt at the fact that she couldn't perfect the damn thing.

"So I think my dad is dating your mom," Zay said making Riley drop her tablet.

"WHAT?"

"Well your mom came over yesterday, my dad thought I was sleeping, anyway they were downstairs talking about how she told your dad that they were dating because my dad was too much of a coward to do it the other day."

"Zay, Uncle Rhodey is not a coward."

"No he's not, but apparently he needs your approval for their relationship to continue, because your dad has already blessed them, but because we're their kids they need our approval. I mean if they got together to the point where they got married we'd be brother and sister, which is cool, but why do they need our permission to date?"

"I think it has to do with boundaries and how it would be a blended family, and all of that kind of stuff," she said thinking about how it would make them all a real family. "You know, I approve of their relationship, plus they know each other so there's no awkward thing where they have to explain that they have kids."

"You're being optimistic."

"Yeah well I've been locked in my workshop for an entire day because of whatever my dad is up to, and since the Avengers were coming over I can't go to my room… it gives a person time to think about things."

Her phone beeped three times, as her tablet alerted her that Peter was on the other line.

"Hey Zay, Peter's calling," she said.

"Go talk to your boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend, will you let that go."

"Nope, talk to you later."

"Later Zay."

She switched the call over only to have Peter sigh in her ear.

"So I'm at your house, and I can't bug you because the Avengers are coming over, what's your dad up to?"

"Team building exercises," she said smiling. "Actually I'm not sure, all I know is that I'm not allowed to go out, and you can't come down here, but we're having a barbeque tomorrow and your invited to that."

"Am I?" he said and she knew he was bored because he was trying to find something to talk about with her even if he questioned everything she was saying.

"Yes, it's only family, so basically my parents, Zay and Uncle Rhodey, you, Ned and Vision… In the end it's just the people who know I exist. I mean dad invited Uncle Nick but he's busy."

"How your dad has kept you a secret is beyond me," Peter said before becoming quiet. "Everyone is starting to arrive."

"Game face Pete," she said smiling.

"I wish, it's still a little weird that they know who I am, but not know who I am… wait did that make any sense?"

"Not really but then again you're in a room full of superheroes so who knows what makes sense anymore. Text me when you're ready to run and Vision will probably find a way to sneak you away."

"Funny, but even I'm sure you're as stuck as I am in all of this," he said and she knew he was waving his hands around. Peter was very animated when he spoke to anyone and sometimes is was fun to watch.

"Who's up there anyway?"

"Well that panther guy is here, and Dr. Banner has been talking to Tony about something and of course… Tony is trying to convince him to teach a science class at the academy," he said and Riley could tell that he was trying to hold back the words your dad. "Vision is in the kitchen cooking, and Zay's dad is here making himself a drink."

"Yeah… good luck with that and talk to you later," she said before attempting to hang up.

"Later… yeah hopefully nothing happens… so yeah later," he said mumbling along. He was nervous and she knew it.

Letting go of the phone she walked over to the couch she kept in the shop and sat down trying to figure out what to do with herself when Vision came in through the wall making her jump.

"Jeez, why can't I get used to that?" she said with her hand on her chest as her heartbeat sped up.

"I'm sorry, but since I'm not allowed to open the door and not alert the others within the house it was unavoidable," Vision said uncovering a plate full of food. Riley smiled when she saw nothing but comfort food in front of her. Before Peter knew who she was Vision had been her only real friend outside of Zay, so when Vision had started to learn how to cook with Wanda, he had come over to the house with plates of food for Riley to try.

Lately he had been cooking dinner with even Peter in mind, as he was coming over more and more. Ned came with him sometimes, but mostly went to Zay's because they had some kind of competition going on a video game.

"It's okay," she said smiling as he put down a plate of mac and cheese with stuffed chicken breast and mashed potatoes. "You know if mom saw that there were no veggies in this she would probably freak."

That was when Vision uncovered a second plate with the most colorful salad she could have imagined. She couldn't help but smile at the android wishing that he could taste the things he often made for her.

"Thanks," she said before receiving a smile from Vision.

"You're welcome," he said before leaving.

The only thing she could do now was wait so she had FRIDAY put on a movie as she settled down to eat her food.

* * *

Steve drove his motorcycle to Tony's house for their date, he had thought it was going to be a barbeque but when he had gotten the message it hadn't seemed that way anymore. He had learned from Bucky, in what seems like another time, to flirt with others but had never actually flirted. Even with Sharon everything had been an awkward mess, but he tried it out on Tony and didn't really expect the reaction he had received.

He also hadn't expected up to the huge house and see the rest of the Avengers standing in front of the door as if they were debating on whether to knock or run the other way. Clint was standing next to Natasha who was holding his hand while Bucky glared from her other side. Wanda was letting out sparks of magic from being nervous, Sam was watching everyone, and Scott wasn't sure if he was supposed to be there.

"Hey," he said walking up to everyone utterly confused as to what was happening.

"So Stark invites the whole team over for dinner," Clint says as he tries to pull away from Nat. "Without telling any of us that he invited the other members of the team."

"Well he hasn't really spoken to any of us since he announced that he was the director," Natasha said, Steve could see a bit of sadness in her eyes.

"I'm pretty sure the only person who talks to him is Colonel Rhodes," Steve said watching as everyone was nervous. He had realized at that moment that Tony had lied about the date, and for some reason it stung because he wanted it to happen, but Tony had to deal with his trust issues with the team. He should have known this but he had given himself a little bit of hope anyway.

Steve watched as Clint attempted to run away for a second time but Natasha grabbed onto his shirt collar and pulled him back choking the man.

"Damn it Nat let me go," Clint said trying to get away from her grip.

"No, Laura says you have to do this, she's still pissed off at you for leaving and going off to help Steve because you were supposed to be retired. She also told me how much fun you all had on Tony's private island so stop being stupid and fucking apologize to the man like the grown up man that you are or else I'll get James to sit on your head until I can get your wife over here to yell at you," she said without stopping, and Steve knew she meant business.

He had wondered about Clint and his family for so long, after everything that had happened, about his own selfishness in asking the archer for help and what it had cost him. Only finding out from Nat weeks ago that Laura Barton believes in family, and that although they fight she's still pissed off at Steve and the rest of them for what had happened. But also there had been some connection formed between the Barton kids and Tony. Nat wasn't infallible in all of this either since she had left Tony behind to help him get away and then joined him in the months after. They had all in some way abandoned Tony, and none of them had tried hard enough to repair that damage since they returned.

The door opened with Dr. Banner on the other side, someone else that they had to learn to work with a get pass another wall. Bruce in some ways understood Tony's need to have laws for powered individuals in a way that Steve had missed since he had made the safety of his childhood friend a priority. Once Tony had modified the Accords to the point where Ross was no longer involved and SHIELD as the in between with the UN. Banner understood the Accords in a way that Steve hadn't and it had been because Banner had the Hulk, but he had also grown up in the same world that Tony had where people take advantage of those with any kind of power, and some who had power took advantage of their position.

Steve had seen it with the Red Skull, but what he had undeniably missed the first time around was just how frightened the people of the world were of those with the kind of powers that the Avengers had. Natasha had told him once while they had been on the run, that in a world like theirs there had to be some kind of checks and balances because if there wasn't it would be as bad as having a mad dictator taking over. Now as he worked to repair so much of what had gone wrong he had to also deal with the fact that as much as he acted like a man out of time, he had been in this life long enough to see what happens when someone has too much power and takes advantage of that.

"Hey everybody," Bruce said welcoming them all in. "FRIDAY had announced your presence but also told us that you were all questioning whether you should knock. So I gave you a few minutes before opening the door."

"Hey Bruce," Natasha said finally letting go of Clint so that she could hug the other man, but it hadn't gone unnoticed how Bucky had stood behind the archer to keep him from running off.

"Hey Nat," Bruce said smiling. Steve had found out that after the war with Thanos, after what had happened to the man while he was in another realm, long after Ultron, Bruce Banner had found himself able to truly control his other half. He had gotten help from Tony in some ways and in others he had gotten help from an old friend.

"So what have you been up to?" she asked walking into the mansion.

"Well Tony's trying to convince me into working at the Academy, he even offered a position to Betty, and we're both considering it."

"Betty? As in Betty Ross?" Clint said astonished at what he was hearing.

"Yes, Betty and I got back together and we've decided to work on our relationship especially since well, after the whole near end of the world thing. I don't want to hold back anymore and lose someone so special."

"But she's… she's Ross's daughter," Clint said making Steve's head turn to the two men. Bruce saw his reaction immediately before offering up a quick explanation.

"Betty and her father haven't gotten along since what happened in Harlem, it's a long story and not one I'm planning on going into right now, this is a dinner to fix the dynamics of the avengers at least those who were involved in that stupid pissing contest, so come in and make yourselves comfortable."

The group walked in to see Peter Parker standing next to T'Challa while talking to Tony who was mixing some kind of drink. Steve hoped it wasn't alcoholic since the kid was still underage. Tony walked up to the bar and give Tony a knowing look before the genius poured him a drink shrugging as he walked to the mini fridge and grabbed some more ice.

"What," he said as Steve took a drink from the cup and tasted nothing but fruit. It was fruit punch, with actual fruit which surprised him. "I never said today was a date, I just said dinner and told you to be here."

"Well that's true, I guess I should have gotten more details in the end," Steve said before turning around to greet Peter and T'Challa.

Once everyone sat down comfortably around the living area Tony finally walked out from behind the bar and sat down on the couch next to Peter.

"So," he said putting his drink down on the side table. "You may all be wondering why you're here. Well I think it's time for us to actually have a conversation that doesn't end in someone throwing a punch, of having an arrow shot at my ass."

Clint choked on his drink for a moment, Natasha started hitting him on the back trying to help him breathe.

"Anyway, Barton already knows this is coming especially since his lovely wife threatened him within an inch of his life just to make him show up here today, because as angry as he is with me over all of the stupidity he himself created, his wife is scary if you cross her. So we're here to mend the fences, to fix this bullshit, and to let go because honestly I can't deal with Natasha popping up somewhere and scaring the living shit out of me again. I get enough of that from Vision and the walking through walls bit he loves to do."

Steve couldn't help but laugh, thinking of how popping up out of nowhere freaks the other man out, but he could understand where the whole conversation was going to go because they needed to mend this team of wayward heroes.

"So where do we start?" he asked looking over at Tony.

"Dinner or a movie night, twice a week, we could do it here or at NAF but we need to get together more often. Today we start with food and conversation, because Vision has been cooking up a storm all afternoon," Tony said while everyone else stayed quiet.

Steve saw a pained looked on Wanda's face because as close as the two of them had gotten since the Civil War, there was still a small rift there because of what had happened to Tony and Steve only knew about it because the same rift was slowly mending itself between Tony and himself. Vision and Tony were family, because of how much of JARVIS lived within the android but also because he was created by the genius himself. To Tony Vision was as much his child as JARVIS had been, even Tony's bots were his family.

Now they just had to work on mending the human family that Tony had once relied on, that Steve had torn apart and now regretted it after being on the run because of all of their fighting.

"Families fight," Tony said shrugging his shoulders. "In the end it's up to us to fix it so that we can trust each other again."


	7. Chapter 7 - Food, Fights, Explosions

_**A/N: I haven't had the chance to address the comments so before I post the next chapter, it's answer time... sometime I wish that there was a reply to comment function on this website that didn't involve sending private messages  
**_

 _ **A/N #2: Also I haven't forgotten about this fic, between my Master's Thesis, my job and the end of the semester, I've been having a hard time trying to find a moment to write. This chapter has been in the works for 2 weeks in between everything I've had to do. Also it's very very long**_

 _ **A/N #3: Happy Infinity War Trailer Release day!**_

* * *

 **geekystuffbb04:** When I started thinking up this story I had to think about the sheer volume of characters I was about to take on, the MCU alone has more people in it than anything I've even written so combining it with GMW I had the compromise a lot. Since I had Maya and Josh in A Moment in Time, but not Farkle and Smackle, I took them out of it. There maybe a possibility that somewhere down the line they might make an appearance but for now I'm working on fixing the Avengers. The next AU, which is The Agent and the Hitman, the full version not the one-shot, will have the whole group in it. That's my December fic.

 **Discursus:** Yeah... Harley is always going to be a problem lol

 **naelacy:** I'm having a lot of conflicting feelings about the relationships in this story while I'm writing it because I'm liking the Riley/Peter story so freaking much, yes Rucas is my OTP pair but Riley and Peter are so cute it hurts and it's causing me problems. I didn't know this was going to happen when I decided to write this story, I hate love triangles I try not to write them and avoid them when I can. This is causing a crisis of epic proportions for me.

* * *

 **Chapter Seven – Food, Fights, Explosions, and Conversations**

* * *

Tony didn't move from his chair he refused to let them get to him, yet a room full of the planet's most powerful heroes stood in front of him and his heart couldn't help but pound inside of his chest. He was never sure if he would make a good leader that's why Steve was given the job at first, but now everything was in his hands and it was somewhat terrifying to have that kind of power in his hands. He watched Steve for a moment as the other man looked around the room to see what the others were thinking without actually asking.

"Dinner's ready," Vision said out of nowhere and Tony couldn't help but jump in his seat. As he stood his phone went off with a message from Riley.

Dinner's yummy, eat it all you'll need the energy, save me some pie -R

He loved that kid, and she was worried about him, so he couldn't disappoint his kid, "Come on let's eat in the dining room and talk while we're there."

The group didn't move, no one said anything, so Tony just walked away only to hear footsteps follow him from behind.

"You know I thought you were serious about the whole date thing, but now it seems like it was a ploy to get me to come over without having to explain anything," Steve said as he fell into step with Tony.

"Well I had to get everyone here some way," he said shrugging his shoulders. "Natasha said yes automatically, it was the guilt, she dragged Barnes, Wanda's here because of Vision, T'Challa came because well because he had the time and I think he felt guilty over what happened with the whole… you know, Peter's here because he's almost always is, he likes the workshop. Bruce is well Bruce, and he calls us stupid for fighting over something ridiculous, I'm pretty sure Laura is the reason why Barton is even here. Sam is here because he still feels guilty over what happened to Rhodey, and Scott… I'm not sure why he's here, I'm guessing it's because of obligation."

"Are you sure about all of that?" Steve asked as they walked into a dining room filled with so much food he wasn't sure if Vision had made it or ordered it.

"Yes, I'm sure."

All the chairs were in place as Tony too his seat at the head of the table, somehow the experience felt a tab bit trippy. Riley always ate in his workshop with him, or they ate in the living room while watching a movie, so they rarely ate in the dining room, so this was the first time he had been in there since his parents had been alive. Everyone slowly walked in and settled down, Natasha was all but dragging Barton into the room, so the moment his eyes met Tony's the sneer was there in the man's eyes.

"So, what now you're going to lord over us?" Barton said making Natasha groan before she clocked him on the shoulder.

"No, you're not allowed to do this," she said to him before pulling him towards a chair and shoving him down.

"We're supposed to be talking so I'm going to fucking talk," he said before turning his attention to Tony. "Now where should I start."

"Why not start with the food in front of you before I call your wife to come and slap some sense into you," Natasha said before shoving a piece of chicken in Barton's mouth.

Pulling it out he gave her a cold stare, and that's when Tony knew that this was not going to be an easy night. All he wanted was for the possibility of being a team again but now he was going to have to deal with a lot of anger from the people in front of him.

"Come on Barton give me the best you've got," Tony said making sure that all of the team's attention was on him.

"Wanda was locked up like a caged animal," Barton started.

"Well if you hadn't broken her out of the compound in the first place that wouldn't have happened, so that was your fault," he said throwing it back in his face.

"She was a prisoner here," Barton sneered.

"Not true, she was free to come and go as she pleased we were just trying to keep her out of the public's eye," Vision said addressing the room.

"Thanks Viz," Tony said looking at Wanda who looked uncomfortable because she was the first thing that had been brought up.

"I can admit to my mistakes," Wanda said looking out at the room. "The facility was my home and I all but destroyed it because I honestly still had some anger inside of me over what had happened in my life. My parents' death, my brother's," her voice broke as she mentioned her family. "While I was on the run, I realized that I was safe here, but I broke the trust of the person who was making sure I was safe, and the trust of the only real friend I had in my life. I regret it all, but regrets cannot make everything better."

She smiled at Vision for a moment who stopped walking around to squeeze her shoulder, she turned her attention to Tony for a moment before saying another word.

"I'm sorry, for everything," she said her voice just above a whisper.

"Don't worry so much about it Wanda, just be happy for once, no more running no more sad eyes, because I don't think I can take the puppy eyes," he said realizing just how much he actually meant it, he had held onto his own fears in regard to Wanda, but he also knew that she was young and was prone to her own mistakes. He couldn't fault her for them as much as he blamed himself for what happened. He smiled at her before turning back to the team. "Anyone else?"

"I'm not done," Clint said and Natasha all but groaned before she put her head in her hands. "No, I want to know why my own family likes him more than they like me, I'm the husband, the father."

"Then fucking act like it," Tony said looking the other man in the eyes. "Do you know what I was doing while you were on the run, I was protecting your family, I was making sure that they were safe because the person responsible for that was too busy coming out of retirement to get into a fight that he had no right being in. They're your family Clint, but if you come out of retirement every time spangles over here calls you," he said point at Steve whose face turned bright red. "You're going to put even more distance between you and them."

Clint stayed quiet after that, but Tony knew if Barton had it in him he would keep fighting until he was blue in the face. Tony looked around the room to see if anyone else was going to start something.

"I'm sorry too," Sam said looking at Tony. "I knew about what had happened to your parents, but I was also the one who told Steve not to call you when we found James and if I hadn't said what I had said well maybe a lot of what had happened could have been avoided."

"Damn straight but we can't change the past we can only consider the future, and before you go talking about Rhodey, he's fine, he's in a relationship, he can walk, he's better than ever," Tony said smiling it felt good to hear everyone airing out their own grievances. "Okay that's two, anyone else?"

Sam nodded and smiled before turning to the group looking to see, like Tony was, who else was going to say something.

"Sorry about… well everything," Barnes said next looking him directly in the eyes. "Also about the beating Steve and I gave you in Siberia."

"Yeah well, I wasn't happy about being stuck in the suit… or the hospital stay after I got out," he said wishing that he had kept his mouth shut because Steve's head snapped up so quickly Tony could swear that he had gotten whiplash.

"What hospital Tony? What happened after we left?" Steve asked concern in his eyes.

"Don't worry about that," he said trying to defect but even Natasha was giving him a worried look.

"Your arm," she said quietly. "You went to help them even though you were injured so of course it would affect you badly."

"Yeah well trust me I tried to go on vacation, but I couldn't stop working, especially since we were down to only three people one of which wasn't an Avenger," he said looking at Peter. "And he's still not an Avenger."

"Sorry Mr. Stark," Peter said which made Tony's eye twitch he really hated being call Mr. Stark it felt like he was in some weird alternate universe, even worse now that everyone calls him Director like he's Fury which only makes him gag.

"What was wrong with your arm?" Steve said trying to direct the conversation back to his injuries.

"Well a bunch of cars landed on it," he said giving Wanda a knowing look which only made he shrink down and give him one of those sad puppy face which he hated, he just wanted to get pass that. "And there was also the fact that your best friend, who was back from the past almost shot it off when we were fighting the first time, and of course there was the fight in Siberia and well that didn't end well especially since someone tried to pull out the reactor before someone else shoved their shield right into my chest plate. I got lucky it didn't break the reactor in my chest, but it left some nasty bruising."

Steve could feel as if the air had left his lungs, he had been fighting on instincts that day, he was trying to protect Bucky while disabling Tony's suit, but he hadn't even paid too much to the injuries Tony had already suffered before getting to that Siberian bunker. The injuries they had all caused in one way or another.

"No," Tony said looking at him and then to Wanda. "No more sad faces, it's over, I'm sorry it happened, I'm sorry we fought and everything else since but it's over. We can't change the past so please let's just move on."

"I don't know how we can after everything," Steve said to him knowing that it was the truth, Tony can act like himself, but the damage had been done they had all gone their own ways and Tony had been left a broken man without his family.

"We can as long as we work together," Vision said smiling which was still awkward to Steve because the android had somehow become more human since he had been created. Wanda probably had something to do with that, especially the way that they looked at one another.

Tony sighed from the head of the table, "I became the director is SHIELD because honestly I don't trust the world to people who allowed Hydra to grow from the inside. But also, because I wanted the team back together, I wanted to make the world a safer place especially after dealing with all the shit we've had to deal with over the years. Nukes, aliens, and the end of the world several times over, even with the Accords in play it makes it easy to police the enhanced individuals of the world in the same way the government and the police do for everyone else."

"It's not the same world we grew up in is it?" Natasha said with a sigh.

"Well we all have our own demons," Tony continued looking at the room full of his makeshift family. "None of our childhoods have been relatively normal in anyway, but I always thought if we made it just a little bit normal in our own way then it wouldn't be so bad."

That was when Steve knew that Tony was trying to create a safe space for them, they were his family even though the world sometimes hated him for things he hadn't had any control over, even though he had taken the reigns when they had all been some where hiding. Tony had always in some way tried to keep them all safe and even though they butted heads over a lot of things, they were family and sometimes family fought like Tony's been saying to them over and over again.

"Some place where we would feel at home," Steve said smiling as he looked over at the rest of the Avengers.

"Well we are a group of wayward heroes, and we all need a home," Tony added smiling back at him. Steve could feel something change in their relationship, it was something real, something tangible, something the others have hinted, and him and Tony have danced around for so long. The feelings he had for so long pushed back against, because he thought that it was wrong in one way or another. Maybe he could get a date with Tony, but for now he wanted to work on their friendship and somewhere in the future he could take that chance.

Just as he was going to say something an explosion rocked the house making the cups spill over onto the table. The team was alert the moment it happened, standing and assessing the situation as they made a move to go towards danger.

"Fri what was that?" Tony said addressing the A.I.

"Protocol 23789," the A.I. answer as if it resolved it for everyone, but Steve knew that the only person who knew what it meant was Tony, so he looked over at the genius for answers.

"What does that mean?" Natasha asked.

"Explosion in the workshop," Tony said pulling up something on a tablet that Steve hadn't noticed was sitting in the dining room. Steve noticed that Peter was walking out of the room towards the doors that lead to the back patio. "Peter don't you dare," Tony said before the teenager jumped off the side of the house like it was nothing.

The rest of the team quickly followed. "Sir, the Iron Protocol has been activated," FRIDAY said making Steve look at Tony was a worried look.

"Is it an attack?" Steve asked as Tony sighed.

"No, it was one of the experiments that was running in the lab, from the looks of it something got mixed up and caused the explosion, or something I won't know for certain until I look through the footage, or even looked at what the workshop looks like now," Tony said a worried look crossing his face as he scanned through the footage of the explosion.

"What's the Iron Protocol?" Steve asked, wondering what it meant for the house.

"Nothing, it's just a failsafe in case of an attack so that people wouldn't have access to the suits," Tony said but Steve could see that the worried look on the man's face only increased. He guessed that he was assessing in his mind the amount of damage that had occurred or even how the explosion happened.

"I'll go tell the team what you told me," Steve said before walking off leaving Tony alone.

The moment no one else was around Tony keyed into his private channel and pulled up the video footage of Riley's workshop just before the explosion, it had come from his lab but from the looks of the video it had blown out the windows of his workshop and Riley's, sending her flying as the one suit he made her keep with her surrounded her body, but not before she hit her head. This wasn't an accident in anyway and he knew it, but he also knew that it was meant to cause him harm, no one knew that there would be someone else caught in the crossfire.

"Fri tell me someone didn't break into your secure servers?"

"No sir, it seems as though the explosion was caused by one of the projects from the abandoned Hydra base that had been infiltrated a few weeks ago, it seems as though a failsafe had been activated from within the device, one that I hadn't detected," the A.I. answered. He had brought the device home with him thinking that it had been some harmless device, apparently Hydra made sure of that until the time was right which meant that either someone knew that the Avengers were at his house, or they were waiting until he was alone. The bomb was meant to go off when he was alone with it and it had gone off while the team was in the house. It couldn't be a coincidence, someone was watching them or at least they were watching their movements.

"And what about the Sunshine protocol?" he asked worried about Riley as he watched the footage for a third time as his daughter had been thrown from the couch that was on the other side of the supposed reinforced windows. He was going to have to look into something stronger, or at least he needed to make sure that Riley's workshop had a double reinforced wall so she wouldn't get injured again.

"Sunshine has been activated, Sunshine has a head injury as well as other minimal injuries," FRIDAY answered but judging from the clipped tone of her voice one of the Avengers was close by.

"Continue running diagnostics, and keep me informed," he said before turning to the group as they walked into the room. Peter looked at him worried, he knew that Peter was worried about Riley as much as he was but Tony shook his head at the teenager. He couldn't have Peter outing Riley at that moment especially if Hydra was after the Avengers. They would go after her and he didn't like the thought of putting her in danger if he could stop it in the first place.

"Do you know what caused it?" Bruce said as he walked through the door.

"The team that infiltrated the old Hydra bunker a few weeks ago gave me a few things to look over, one of those things had been activated, but when it was brought in we were sure, that it wasn't a bomb or else I wouldn't have brought it home with me," he said with a sigh as he ran his hand through his hair. If he could he would pull it all out to make sure that his kid was alright but with FRIDAY working on making sure she was alright he had to also be certain that the suit would take Riley to the hospital if any of her injuries were serious. "We need to look over everything that we brought in, because this isn't anything like the tech we've recovered before. I want to know how they were able to hide an explosive so well that we didn't detect it before it went off."

"Does it feel like no matter how many times we go after them, clear out their hideouts, take all of their toys, that they just come back stronger each time," Bucky said as he sat down, Tony knew it was because Hydra was the demon that followed the Winter Solider around no matter how much he tried to do good.

"It does feel like they're getting more advanced," T'Challa said as he walked over to where Tony stood. "I would like to look at this technology and see if I can assist in identifying this foreign entity."

"I'll help with that," Bruce said and Tony could see a slight twinge of green around the man's eyes but seemed as though he had it was under control.

"For now, we should eat dinner while SHIELD agents come to assess the situation," Tony said looking at the table full of food. He grabbed one of the pies and put it aside for Riley, she was going to need comfort food after what had happened, and Tony was going to have to find a way to explain to Pepper that their kid had been injured while she had been at home.

* * *

Riley woke up in her room, which surprised her because the last thing she remembered was eating dinner and watching a movie. Her head was throbbing, there was a bandage on her forehead and she felt like something was missing from her memory.

"Hey sweetheart how do you feel?" he father asked as he walked through her bedroom door, he looked back to make sure that no one had followed him.

That was when she remembered the explosion, and the Iron Man suit closing around her before she passed out. The Avengers had been in the house when it had happened, but since she was in her room they were either gone or they had found a way to get her to her room without anyone noticing.

"Peter's worried sick downstairs but since we have Cap down there with SHIELD he's stuck," he father continued.

"How did you get me up here without anyone noticing?" she asked as she watched him slowly pacing the room.

"Well I had to test out the stealth suit sooner or later," he said shrugging.

"How are you up here without anyone noticing?"

"This isn't a Q & A young lady."

"Answer the question."

"I may have accidentally spilled something on my clothes and said I was going to change," he answered before sitting down next to her. "Now answer my question, how are you feeling."

"Like a truck his me, my head hurts."

"It's not a concussion, Fri made sure or else I would have taken you to the hospital everyone else be damned, you have some cuts but they're not too bad," he stopped talking for a moment before giving her a guilty look that made her wince. "Your mother is angry that I didn't call her the moment it happened."

"Mom gets angry if I talk about making anything that could blow up so I wouldn't freak out too much," she said smiling. Her mother was an overprotective hen sometimes, and Riley knew it had something to do with her father and the amount of aspirin she has to take when he won't work on anything for Stark Industires.

"Yeah well, she's on her way here, even though I told her to hold back but Rhodey's with her and they're both freaking out."

"Yeah but Uncle Rhodey is freaking out about other things... like making sure that I'm alright with him and mom dating," she said smiling at her father.

"How do you know that?"

"A little birdy told me... well actually Zay told me, but it's fine, they can date," she shrugged which only made her head hurt from the effort. "As long as mom's happy I'm fine with it, plus it gives me time to fix you up with someone."

"Don't turn into Natasha, she had this period where she tried to set Steve up with everyone under the sun, I don't want that, I'm happy with my bots and my kid annoying me. I have enough on my plate."

Riley sighed but she wasn't going to give up until both of her parents were happy, "Fine for now," she said. "Go before they get suspicious, and if you can send up some pie, I know you saved me some."

"Damn right I did," he said before giving a kiss on her head, which reminded her of those days when she was little, the ones where they were together just the two of them, where he was making pancakes in the kitchen as she told him stories. This was before everything, before the world of heroes, before Iron Man, when they were just father and daughter.

"Send it up with Vision, and tell him to throw some ice cream on it," she said with a smile.

"Will do kiddo," he said before walking out of the room.

It took five seconds after her father walked out the door for her window to open from the outside, Riley almost screamed out if it wasn't for the messy unruly hair of one of her friends to pop up. Peter climbed through the window with a smile and quickly sat down next to her.

"You okay," was all he asked and she nodded which was a horrible idea.

"I need an aspirin or something, but other than that I'm alright," she said with a sigh. Peter sat there nodding for a moment when she realized that if he was caught by the Avengers they would notice that she was there as well. "Why are you up here? Aren't you afraid that one of them would follow you up?"

"Not really, your dad is down there with a whole group of agents and they're in the workshop reviewing the damage, so they're all distracted, all I had to do was say that I was going home and walked out the front before back tracking and webbing my way up here."

"My dad is going to kill you one day I swear," she said with a smile. Peter was really one of her closest friends and she liked that he worried. "Anything else happened, because my dad didn't say anything to me about why I was blown off the couch for no reason. Especially since I'm 100% sure that he wasn't running any test on the suits."

"Hydra happened, I'm still vague on all of the details but apparently there had been a raid on a facility and they brought back a bunch of stuff that they swore was harmless, when in the end they weren't or something. One of those things set off the explosion," he said before laying back onto her pillows.

"Hydra is the reason for a lot of our problems," she said to him knowing it was the truth no matter what. Her grandparents died because of them, all of the attacks since the incident at the SHIELD facility on the Potomac, it felt like they were never truly going to go away. "Cut off one head two more will take its place," she said with a sigh.

"It feels like there's someone pulling the strings on this put who could it be," Peter added as they stared at the far end of her bedroom.

"Don't know but we're not allowed to look into it, we're not agents or anything."

"Didn't stop me before when I was just a friendly neighborhood Spiderman."

Riley smiled at that, "Well maybe if we do it under the radar we could get away with our own little investigation, I mean Ned could hack circles around most of the guys at SHIELD, well with the exception of my father."

"So where do we start?" he said with a grin.

"Well like any good investigation, we need a team of experts," she smiled back at him as they begin planning.

"We already have a team to work with," he said, she knew what team he was talking about and it she wasn't entirely happy about it because of the way that Lucas had acted the day her father had had a panic attack. "Riley, don't think too much about it."

"Get out of my head Pete," she said before shrugging her shoulders. "I just don't know if I can trust anyone outside of the inner circle."

"We don't have to tell them he's your dad, we just need to find a way to mention the explosion."

"Peter, they don't even know that you're Spiderman, how are we going to mention the fact that we know about an explosion that no one should know about?"

"Well they're the team, they'll need to know that I'm Spiderman," he said bumping her shoulder. She realized that he was going to reveal himself to protect her secret.

"I don't want you to tell them if you don't want to," she said with a sigh. "A secret identity as a superhero is important."

"I know but you, Ned and Zay all know and they're on the team, so I think the other three members of our group need to know especially because they've been tailoring our practices to match my abilities."

"Fine spiderboy," she said with a smile. "But don't do it during class please, we can't tell the world we don't know whose good at keeping secrets."

"Fine Iron girl," he smiled back, that's what friends were for, having each other's backs.

"Are you going to be alright for tomorrow's training drill?" he asked while pointing at her head.

"I'm going to be fine, we're only working with resisting magic attacks, so it shouldn't be so bad, plus I've had worse so as long as I sleep tonight and drink some aspirin, I'll be okay."

"Why are we having a weekend drill anyway, it seems pointless," he said with a groan.

"Because an attack happens at all times, so we have to be prepared no matter what," she said with her best Captain America expression before she started laughing. "That and half the staff will be gone so the risk of damage won't be as huge if something went crazy."

Before Peter could say another word, Vision came up through the ceiling holding a pie and some water for her.

"If I wasn't so used to this I would have probably screamed," she murmured as she took the glass and the packet of pills he had produced out of nowhere and swallowed them down. "Thanks Vision, you're a lifesaver," she rubbed her head, talking and laugh was taking its toll on her head, but she didn't mind so much when surrounded by friends. "Now give me pie."

Vision gave her a small smile before handing her the pie, "Please do take care of yourself," he said before drifting off.

"I will Vision," she said quietly knowing he would have heard before he had disappeared. Outside of the guys, and the small amount of people who knew about her, Vision had become as close to family as anyone else, it could have been because of his connection to JARVIS, or it was that they were strangely growing up together.

Peter stayed with her helping her finish off the apple pie, before she passed out from exhaustion, she wasn't sure when he had left all she remembered was a kiss on her forehead before the world blacked out.

* * *

As soon as the other Avengers left Tony took a breath, it lasted a minute before Pepper was barreling into the house, he hadn't had a chance to check in on Riley all night, but Vision had assured him that she was alright and that Peter was with her. He wasn't completely alright with the thought of Riley being alone with a boy, even if all of her friends were boys. It was the fates revenge for the way he acted when he was younger he was sure of it.

"How's our kid doing?" Pepper said sitting down on the couch.

"What no, Hi Tony? No, how was your day?" he said before smiling at Pepper for a moment.

"No, our kid is hurt so that's all that matters," she said giving him a pointed look. "What happen, and don't say it's classified or else I'm going to bury you in paperwork and no one will hear from you for a year."

"Geez, and she's fine, Peter's with her now, he made up some lie about having to go home and the sneaky bastard crawled through her bedroom window like he's Romeo," he said with a scowl.

"That's what you get for letting her have mostly guy friends," she said with a smile. "You're scared of her dating, your kid is a genius, she knows everything about what you've done in the past, and your scared that she's going to turn out just like you."

"Can you blame me, she is a Stark after all."

"You shouldn't worry too much, the worse she's going to do is blow up another science lab, now tell me what happened."

"Something we recovered from a Hydra facility turned out to be a ticking time bomb, literally, the damn thing blew up my lab, but the stealth suit grabbed Riley and hid her away while it checked her for injuries. The worse she got was a nasty cut on her head and some bruises, she's fine."

"And how did dinner go?" she asked since his answer was to her liking.

"They apologized, I apologized, the house blew up, we ate as some agents checked out the fragments, it felt oddly normal," he said with a shrug.

"It sounds oddly normal," she said smiling at him. "Are you ever going to tell Rogers that you like him."

"You sound like a teenage girl, what is this gossip hour, are you going to paint my nails?"

"I'm curious honestly, we didn't work for many reasons, but I know you and him, well if you got over your mountain of issues, you could work."

"I don't have a mountain of issues," he said to her with a smile.

"Tony, you have an Everest of issues, and there's also the fact that none of the Avengers know about that kid of ours, and of course your past issues with your father, and then there's the whole thing with James Barnes."

"Fine, geez woman if I knew better I'd say that you were trying to make me relive all of this crazy stuff. The thing with Riley's going to come out soon, so we don't have to worry about that, and if you want I'll try and either tell Cap about my feelings or if I don't you can bury me in paperwork until I die."

"Deal," she said as he heard someone coming down the stairs.

Peter was standing in front of them his eyes looked tired, and Tony knew it had something to do with the long day they just had.

"Hi Peter," Pepper said to the teenager. "How's Riley?"

"She's asleep Ms. Potts," he said reminding Tony of all the time he had spent trying to get the kid to stop calling him Mr. Stark.

"Peter the spare bedroom is free if you want to crash," Tony said not mentioning the whole issue he has with a boy being in his daughter's room, he knew Riley wouldn't do anything. At least he hoped she wouldn't.

"Thanks," he said before drifting off to the guest bedroom that Peter normally stayed in when he spent the weekend with them.

"He's a good kid Tony," Pepper said to him. "Don't worry if Riley wants to date let her, it's not like she's going out with some crazed villain."

"I hope not," he said as the thought entered his mind. His kid with a villain, hell her being a villain was scary enough.

"Go get some sleep, I'll be back tomorrow for our little get together," she said before standing up and giving his shoulder a squeeze.

"Night Pep," he said as she left leaving him alone with his thoughts.

* * *

Lucas was laying on his bed thinking, it was all he could do because the facility was quiet for a Friday night, and he didn't know why all of the Avengers had left earlier. He had seen them as they climbed into their cars and drove off, while he wandered around the field thinking about what Sharon had said to him. Wondering why he had never put two and two together because he should have known that if Howard Stark had been involved with SHIELD then of course his Aunt Peggy had known Tony Stark.

The reminder of followed him around like a plague, their families connected because of this, Tony Stark was her godson, and Lucas couldn't figure out why he had grown with the hatred for the man. Only to remember that it had come from his parents, especially when Stark was being an outlandish git on television. So, Lucas had learned from his parents, and only asked about Captain America and the Howling Commandos. So of course, when Iron Man appeared he had been enthralled, only to let that hero worship die down because it had been revealed that it was Stark powering the armor.

"Hey Lucas, you wanna come over and watch a movie," Farkle said walking into his room.

"Do you think I was being unreasonable with Tony Stark," he asked he long-time friend without answering the question that had been posed a moment ago.

"Well," Farkle said as if he were trying to find a way out of the conversation.

"Be honest," he said automatically.

Farkle sat down on the corner of the bed and looked at him with a sad look. "I couldn't understand why you didn't like him. I mean I admire the man, he's a genius of course, but somedays I tried to see it your way to get a better understanding of it all and honestly, I couldn't. He's had his bad moments but he's human, we make mistakes."

Lucas groaned throwing himself on his pillows at the answer. "My Aunt Peggy," he started but his voice was muffled.

"Sorry, say that again," Farkle said forcing Lucas to turn around.

"My Aunt Peggy, one of the founders of SHIELD, all around badass, was his godmother," he said staring at the ceiling like it held he answers to the universe instead of being a smooth white surface. "Sharon told me earlier, and because of all of this hate he wasn't given the chance to go to Aunt Peggy's funeral even though he was family."

"There's more to this isn't there," Farkle said to him.

"Well it got me thinking about how Riley, Zay, Ned and Peter had reacted during lunch when Stark had stormed out and well I can honestly say I was an ass."

"Nah it was more like you had your head up your ass, but they had a right to be angry, I mean Zay is the man's godson, and Peter interned with Stark, did you know he was a genius too. Anyway, Ned knows Stark and Riley of course is Zay's friend, so she's close to him too."

"I have to apologize don't I," he said as his shoulders slumped. He felt awful about everything after his talk with Sharon and with Captain America, they were a team. He had made the mistake, so it was up to him to fix the mess.

"Yes, you do, but think about how it will help our team if we learn from our mistakes," Farkle said before standing up. "Now movie?"

"Sure, why not," he said standing up and followed his friend.

Throughout the movie he thought of how he was going to talk to the group during the training exercise the next morning. After they finished he had let his mind wander away from the thoughts that had been plaguing his mind throughout the day. When he went back to his room he let his mind wander to how he was going to apologize, but his mind turned to Aunt Peggy.

He remembered when she would sit with him, while they visited her, as her mind slowly went away, but she would always tell him the same stories, about her time in SHIELD. He also remembered how he used to fall asleep in her arms while she rocked back and forth. There was a part of his heart that missed her and her stories, he was never ready to say goodbye to her.

"What would Aunt Peggy say," he wondered out loud knowing full well that she would probably yell at him for being stubborn and say that Captain America would be disappointed in him.

He was glad that she hadn't seen what had happened after her death because it would have broken her heart to see the two people she had been the closest to throughout her life fighting one another.

That was when he realized that it wasn't about what his Aunt Peggy would have said but how her actions dealt with the problem at hand. He not only had to learn from his mistakes but act the way she would have wanted him to. Maybe even take the chance and learn more about Tony Stark, and not rely on his public persona.

 _That's my boy_ , he could hear her whisper. As if she were approving of what he wanted to do, he was learning not only from his mistakes but also from the lesson she had taught him. Even if she wasn't around anymore, he was going to make her proud and become a stronger person.

* * *

The Avengers returned to the compound around midnight, but Steve couldn't let go of the fact that Tony seemed distracted after the explosion had gone off. Steve watched him afterwards especially after they had all gone out to check for damage on the house and Tony had stayed inside. He sat down in the communal area and looked at the blank screen in front of him wondering why Tony seemed so out of it.

"What's on your mind Stevie," Bucky said as he plopped himself next to Steve, while Natasha sat down on the single couch across from him.

"You've been weird since the explosion happened," Natasha said looking at him with a questioning gaze.

"Do you think that Tony was acting weird tonight?" he asked outright, he knew they needed to talk about it before a misunderstanding occurred.

"I noticed, but you have to remember that it was his house, and his workshop, imagine losing all of the work you've been doing," Natasha said looking over at him, making him remember that she had spent time with him undercover and knows Tony in a way that most of them wouldn't. "Yes, he probably backed everything up but you have to remember there was also the possibility of him losing something that would take time to recreate especially if it was something that would help us as a team."

"I think Steve is just trying to find a way to stay close to Stark," Bucky chimed in with a smile. "You're worried about him, especially in that big house alone, Vision came back with us so he's in there all alone."

Natasha smiled over at Bucky before looking over at Steve, "aww he wants to protect him."

"You two are too much I swear," Steve said running a hand through his hair.

"Stevie, you have a crush on him, so of course you want to find a reason to stay there without having to explain it," Bucky said to him.

"It's not faultless, there is a real threat because Hydra might have made sure it was something no one could truly detect, they could be targeting Tony," Steve said looking at his teammates, it didn't feel like a stretch because Tony wouldn't give up the chance to take a look at any kind of tech. "You know I'm right, he's not the type to step away from something interesting."

"Shit," Bucky said as if the realization hit him. "I didn't think to look at it that way, but then again you're the one always looking at everything from a million angles even when you were getting the shit beaten out of you."

"So, if someone is targeting Tony, we have to find out why, but what does that have to do with him being distracted earlier," Natasha said as they looked at one another.

"There's something more, something he's not telling us, and I hate secrets it's one of the reasons that everything went to hell with SHIELD in the first place too many damned secrets," Steve said wanting to hit something. He knew he needed to trust Tony, but somehow whenever he was kept in the dark it never went the way should, and everything went to hell quickly.

Natasha sighed as if they were working on something that normally would involve Tony himself, or Doctor Banner, they were the ones solving puzzles that no one could dream of. Bucky looked at him for a moment, they shared a look, the history of everything that had happened over the last few years. Even what happened before he had found Bucky, all of it haunted them.

"What could he be hiding that would be down there?" Natasha was the first to ask.

"Whatever it is that kid Peter was worried about it too, and Vision kept disappearing as well," Bucky added.

"For all we know we're reading too much into nothing, and what they were studying or doing had something to do with why Peter is Spiderman, or why Vision retains pieces of JARVIS," Natasha said giving Steve something to think about. Peter and Vision were both powered individuals that no one could understand, so if they were checking something they had reason to keep it secret.

"It's too much to think about right now, we should get to bed, we're running that drill in the morning anyway," Steve said feeling defeated for a moment.

"Okay," Natasha said with a sigh. "But Steve remember if you want to know something ask Tony, don't let this get out of hand only to find out that it was nothing at all."

"Also tell him that you love him and put us all out of our misery," Bucky added before Natasha all but dragged him out of the room leaving Steve alone with his thoughts.

Natasha walked back into the room after a moment and looked at Steve, "I wanted to ask, do you think it's really safe for the students to go through that drill tomorrow?"

"They have to learn about it there's no way around it Nat, they have to be aware of what's out there," he said knowing where her concern was coming from. "Wanda has a better handle over her powers, and Tony approved the drill as long as no one got hurt."

"This feels like a vetting process, because if they can't get through this how would they survive a real crisis," she said with a sigh. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight Nat," he said knowing where her concern was, but his concern was still on Tony.

He kept thinking back to Tony, his hushed whispers with FRIDAY, his constant checking of his tablet, the fact that his faced paled when the explosion happened. Steve knew that there was something he was missing, but then again there were a lot of things about Tony that he didn't know because he had never taken the time to truly get to know the man. For so long it was about missions, and friendly banter, they never went any deeper than that and he regretted it after the whole war.

There was no time for regret, not anymore, and he knew that. If he wanted to have any kind of relationship with the man he was going to have to work for it. For now, he was going to have to trust that Tony was just worried about the overall structure of the house, or any personal experiments that he had been running for Stark Industries.

* * *

Early mornings were not her favorite time of day, she knew this but after the head injury the day before Riley resented them even more. She had sat in the kitchen that morning with a cheery Peter, who she had wanted to kill because of her headache, and grimaced the entire time until Vision handed her a glass of orange juice and two little white pills, along with their breakfast. Ned and Zay joined them on the ride to the training grounds, as Peter filled them in on what happened the day before.

Now standing out on this field her head less of a mess, she was starting to regret coming to school when she realized she was still angry at Lucas. So of course, as he walked up to them, Farkle and Isadora next to him she didn't know what she could say or do to make the whole thing better.

"I'm sorry," Lucas said to them which only shocked her for a moment. "I'm a product of my upbringing, which is just me saying that I was taught to hate Tony Stark by my family and would like to have the chance to change my opinions on him."

For a quick moment Zay looked at her, before looking back at Lucas, "We're a team, we all have to learn together, but don't insult my family again or else I send some very powerful people after you."

Peter snorted at the words that Zay had said, Ned just looked over at them and rolled his eyes, while Riley tried to put her feelings together. They didn't know, they only thought that she had been disgusted because her father was Zay's godfather, she couldn't be the one that said that everything was alright. It hurt her more than it did anyone else to see someone paint her father in that light just because of his public persona. The truth about it all was that her father had only kept it up to shine the light away from Riley. So no one would notice.

"Let's just move on from this, we're a team we need to act like one," she said because it was the best she could do, it was the only thing she could do.

"Alright teams," the voice boomed over the field, when Riley looked over she saw Captain America standing at the far end. They all walked over before he started talking again.

"Today you're going to learn how to react to magic based attacks," he said to them as the rest of their instructors made their way toward where he was standing. "Since we're still working on your fighting skills this will just be a demonstration drill, we'll assist you in the formations until you can put together your own team dynamics."

"But why on Saturday morning," someone from one of the other teams groaned, making some people laugh.

"Because when an attack comes they're not going to worry about whether you've had enough sleep or a day off, all that they would care about is the heaviest attack they can implement on the people in the city, town, or country," he answered them before waiting for another comment. "Alright each team will be tested by someone with a magical ability, Vision and Scarlet Witch will work with two teams at a time while your team instructors will help with the team defense. Now assemble."

Riley watched as her teammates walked over to the Winter Solider and Black Widow, it felt strange to be in this group, but she was among friends, some new some old, and even though she was still weird about the whole team up, mainly because their leads are two people close to her father.

"Alright kids, we're going to first work on resisting an attack from a powered individual, you're allowed to use your own abilities to resist," Natasha began before giving a pointed look at Peter, Riley tried not to laugh. "We'll start with small attacks, Wanda is going to help us with this, the most is for you to resist the attack or help your team get to safety and regroup."

"We're working on non-lethal attacks," James said to them. "She's only going to try and disable one team member with her attack and you're going to have to find a way to break her hold on them first. We're not going to tell you who is going to be attacked, but you have to stand on these markers," he said pointing to where there were small flags each a different color. "They will indicate where you maybe in a battle, Wanda will have two minutes to use her gift on the chosen person."

"You're not going to know who it is," Natasha added. "That's why the flags are different colors, they're not in any way an indicator to who will be chosen."

"Now everyone go pick a color," James said the group separated the moment he told them to move.

There were ten flags and seven of them so three markers weren't going to be used, Riley picked a purple flag, Peter a red one, Zay picked a grey one, Ned chose orange, Smackle picked yellow, Farkle chose green, and Lucas picked blue. They were spread out all over the area each of them not knowing where they should look.

"Close your eyes and count to sixty," Natasha said, reminding them that in a normal circumstance they wouldn't see the attack coming.

The seven of them closed their eyes and began to count, Riley took steadying breaths, the thought of an unprovoked attack scared her because she remembered so much of the battles her father had fought. She knew that one of the reasons he had agreed to let her join this school was because he had wanted to make sure that she was protected even if she learned it herself. It was the reason why she trained with Happy, the reason she had taken self-defense classes, and the reason why she had started on her own version of the Iron Man armor.

The feeling of something encircling her arms made her stiffen, the attack was going to be against her, but that meant that the rest of the team couldn't do anything until they reached sixty. She tried to focus on something else, when all of a sudden, she was taken back to that time when Thanos had attacked and her father had put her in an underground bunker while he fought to save the world.

Images of that time flooded her mind, the darkness, the sounds of terror from the television as she kept an eye out for her father. Remembering Peter getting hurt, and then there was no one, everything went black and all she saw was her greatest fear, her father's armor dead on the ground as that mad titan crushed him, blood pouring out of the suit, and Riley screaming for her father before Thanos turned to her and grabbed her by the neck.

As soon as the vision started it ended, Riley felt her eyes pop open and she came face to face with a stunned Wanda Maximoff. Riley felt her eyes go wide before sending a silent plea to the woman in front of her not to say anything about what had just happened.

"Is the attack happening?" Zay said from the other side of the field.

Everyone looked over to where Riley and Wanda were standing, and all of a sudden, she felt Peter standing next to her giving Wanda a questioning look. He had used his abilities as Spiderman because he had known of what Wanda was capable of. Riley knew what Wanda was capable of, and it scared her because Wanda had seen Riley's biggest fear, the death of her father. The headache she had been trying to keep at bay all morning had all of a sudden turned into a migraine, her head pounding like a jackhammer.

"Sorry," Wanda said after a moment. "I started and then Riley opened her eyes and it startled me."

The field was very quiet around them which was unusual since they were running a drill, but that's when she noticed that everyone, not just on her team but everyone running the drills were looking at them. Riley rubbed her head, the vision and the pain she had been in the day before was making her dizzy. The other students mumbling around them, pointing at the three of them, Peter exposing himself as Spiderman to everyone else.

Peter grabbed her before she fell on the ground, and the feeling of being weightless as someone carried her away.

* * *

Tony was in his office at NAF working on some last-minute things, but mostly he was worried about Riley and regretting the fact that he had approved the training exercise. The only reason he had come into the facility in the first place was to keep an eye on her, but he didn't want to be seen on the training grounds so he started on his paperwork. The barbeque was being set up by Pepper back at the house, and they all had to be back by four, so he had time to spare since he didn't want to look at the damage to the workshop yet.

Looking at the clock he wondered how long he could stay there without anyone noticing when there was a light knock on the door. Apparently if he thought about it then he knew that someone would notice at some point.

"Come in," he said trying to look busy at his desk instead of being an overly worried father.

The door slowly opened revealing the red hair on Wanda's head and a look of shock on her face. The first thing he thought was that something went wrong at the training, but he tried his best not to show it on his face.

"What can I help you with Wanda," he said hoping it came out as normal as he could possibly sound.

She walked in and closed the door behind her, he thought she was going to do something drastic for a moment, but knew better because she had really changed over the years. When she sat down in front of his desk he looked at her wondering why she was there in the first place.

"You should have told us," she said quietly, he had almost missed it.

"What do you mean Wanda?"

"The reasons why you tried so hard to help us all, the reasons why you worked so hard as Iron Man, the vision I had given you was one of your fears but not all of them," she said as she intertwined her fingers into one another. Every once and a while a small red spark came from her hand.

"You have to give me more than that Wanda I feel like your speaking in code," he said confused by what she was saying for a moment.

"Your daughter," she said finally looking into his eyes. "Her greatest fear, is watching you die right in front of her."

For a moment it felt like the air had been sucked out of his lungs, he couldn't think, he couldn't breathe.

"How did you find out?" he asked his voice barely above a whisper.

"She picked the purple flag, it was the indicator of who in her group would suffer the attack that they would have to work together to fight, except I learned more in that short amount of time than I should have," she stopped to breathe, as if the air was being slowly dragged out of the room. "She watched you get crushed in your armor, she screamed out for you, and before anything could happen it took her too."

Tony could feel his hands shaking, "Did you tell anyone?" he asked knowing that the answer could change so much so fast.

"No, it's not my secret to tell, but I wondered why you hid it," she said watching his face as if it would give her all of the answers.

"She's my kid, I wanted to protect her, so that she could have a normal life, and yet she still chose to become a part of mine."

Wanda ran her fingers through her hair for a moment and sighed. "I will keep this secret for you, since you've done so much for me," she said with a small smile. "You're a good father, that much I can see from how she worries about you."

"I tried my best," he said to her. For Wanda who had no family left to be the first to find out about Riley made him realize just how alone she would have been without the Avengers to help her, to be her family. "Wanda, if you want to you can join us for a family get together later today, just you because Riley will be there, but so will Vision and I know he'll be happier if you're there."

"That's very kind of you," she said with a smile before walking out of the room.

"Well I try," he said to her before she disappeared.


End file.
